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PRINCETON,  N.  J. 


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BX  9183  ,D6  1905 
Donaldson,  James,  1831-1915J 
The  Westminster  confession  ' 
of  faith  and  the  thirty-  i 


'      ..,-y,    .... 


pi. 


THE 
WESTMINSTER  CONFESSION  OF  FAITH 

AND  THE 

THIRTY-NINE  ARTICLES  OF  THE 
CHURCH   OF   ENGLAND 

THE    LEGAL,    MORAL,    AND    RELIGIOUS   ASPECTS 
OF  SUBSCRIPTION  TO  THEM, 


THE 

WESTMINSTER  CONFESSION 
OF  FAITH 

AND  THE 

THIRTY-NINE    ARTICLES   OF   THE 
CHURCH    OF    ENGLAND 

THE   LEGAL,   MORAL,   AND   RELIGIOUS 
ASPECTS   OF  SUBSCRIPTION    TO  THEM 

BY 

JAMES   DONALDSON,    M.A.,   LL.D. 

PRINCIPAL   OF    THE   UNIVERSITY   OF   ST.    ANDREWS 


LONGMANS,     GREEN,     AND     CO. 

39  PATERNOSTER  ROW,  LONDON 

NEW  YORK  AND  BOMBAY 

1905 

All  rights  feserved 


PREFACE 


IN  the  case  of  the  Free  Church  of  Scotland 
Appeals,  which  came  before  the  House  of  Lords 
1903-4,  the  judges  stated  their  opinion  that  Churches 
must  adhere  strictly  to  the  creeds  which  they  profess 
in  the  sense  which  the  framers  of  the  creeds  attached 
to  the  words  of  these  creeds.  The  application  of 
this  opinion  to  established  Churches  is  simple.  The 
laws  of  the  country  fix  the  creeds  which  are  to 
be  believed,  and  determine  the  formula  of  adhesion 
to  the  creeds  and  to  the  ritual  of  the  Churches 
which  each  priest  or  minister  has  to  subscribe  or 
assent  to.  In  the  first  chapters  of  my  book  I  have 
brought  before  my  readers  the  principal  Articles  of 
the  Creeds  of  the  Church  of  England  and  the  Church 
of  Scotland,  and  I  ask  them  to  study  these  and 
consider  whether  it  is  reasonable  to  expect  that 
cultivated  men  can  subscribe  these  Articles  as  articles 
of  their  own  faith.     I  have  not  attempted  to  discuss 


VI  PREFACE 

the  subjects  fully,  but  simply  to  supply  materials  for 
thought. 

The  case  of  the  United  Free  Church  is  not  so 
clear.  That  Church  claims  that  it  has  acquired  the 
right  to  alter  the  dogmas  of  its  creed,  and  to  deter- 
mine the  measure  of  adhesion  which  is  to  be  de- 
manded of  its  ministers  and  elders.  It  also  maintains 
that  those  who  bequeathed  or  presented  sums  of 
money  to  the  Church  did  so  on  the  express  under- 
standing that  the  General  Assembly  was  to  be  the 
final  arbiter  of  all  theological  questions  that  might 
arise.  The  Church  was  advised  by  the  lawyers 
whom  it  consulted  that  it  had  secured  the  objects  at 
which  it  aimed  by  the  legal  provisions  which  it  had 
made.  The  judges  who  discussed  this  question 
differed  widely  from  each  other,  and  the  law  of  the 
case  may  be  considered  doubtful.  But  the  lawyers 
of  the  United  Free  Church  argued  that,  even  sup- 
posing it  had  been  an  established  Church,  there  was 
no  proof  that  it  had  deviated  from  its  creed.  The 
moral  and  religious  aspects  of  subscription  by  the 
United  Free  Church  do  not  therefore  properly  come 
within  the  scope  of  my  book.  The  Minority  Free 
Church  also  affirmed  that  it  had  not  deviated  from 
the  creed.     I   believe  that  both  Churches  have,  in 


PREFACE  VII 

fact,  deviated  from  the  Confession  of  Faith  ;  that 
especially  the  United  Free  Church  has  given  ample 
proof  that  many  of  its  teachers  are  men  of  wide 
culture  possessed  with  an  ardent  desire  to  reach  the 
truth,  and  animated  by  the  belief  that  it  is  only  the 
truth  that  will  make  both  learned  and  unlearned 
free.  The  same  spirit  does  not  seem  to  animate 
the  Minority  Free  Church,  and  therefore  there  has 
not  been  much  progress.  But  men  in  these  days 
cannot  altogether  resist  the  movements  of  thought 
that  are  ever  taking  place,  and  if  a  committee  of 
cultured  theologians  had  been  appointed  to  inquire 
into  the  state  of  matters,  they  would  have  found 
that  a  considerable  number  of  the  members  of  that 
Church  did  not  understand  the  Articles  of  their  creed, 
and  that  all  had  in  some  way  or  other  deviated 
from  it.  I  have  therefore  drawn  attention  to  some 
of  their  beliefs.  The  men  who  framed  the  Con- 
fession of  Faith  were  men  of  wide  culture  and  great 
earnestness,  and  if  they  had  been  alive  in  the  present 
day  they  would  no  doubt  have  rejected  three-fourths 
of  the  special  doctrines  of  the  Minority  Free  Church. 
I  have  felt  a  difficulty  in  knowing  how  to  designate 
the  various  bodies  concerned  in  the  case.  I  have 
divided  the  Free  Church  of  1843  to  1900  into  the 


Vlll  PREFACE 

Majority  Free  Church  and  the  Minority  Free  Church. 
The  name  of  the  Majority  Free  Church  after  19CMD  is 
the  United  Free  Church,  but  what  name  the  Scotch 
people  will  attach  to  the  Minority  Free  Church  no 
one  can  tell,  nor  can  anyone  predict  whether  it  will 
exist  at  all. 

There  is  a  difficulty  also  with  the  designation  of 
the  judges.  They  are  known  as  the  House  of 
Lords,  but  some  of  the  members  of  the  House  of 
Lords,  who  are  not  members  of  the  legal  profession, 
have  expressed  an  anxiety  that  it  should  be  clearly 
understood  that  the  great  majority  of  peers  have 
had  nothing  to  do  with  the  decision.  Only  some  of 
the  legal  peers  are  concerned  in  it. 

I  have  had  also  to  speak  of  the  "  higher  criticism." 
Higher  criticism  is  an  unfortunate  term.  It  means 
merely  literary  and  historical  criticism.  Such  criti- 
cism is  applicable  to  every  literature,  and  has  been 
carried  on  in  every  age.  It  is  part,  for  instance,  of 
higher  criticism  to  affirm  that  Moses  is  the  author  of 
the  Pentateuch,  but  most  men  in  the  present  day 
regard  this  as  bad  higher  criticism.  In  the  same 
way  it  may  be  deemed  geological  criticism  to  say 
that  the  world  was  made  in  six  days,  but  most 
geologists    consider    this    as     erroneous    criticism 


PREFACE  IX 

based  on  ignorance  of  the  facts.  It  may  also  be 
part  of  astronomic  criticism  to  say  that  the  sun 
revolves  round  the  earth,  but  astronomers  regard 
such  an  affirmation  as  the  result  of  bad  methods  of 
reasoning. 

Since  the  last  chapter  was  printed,  I  have  heard 
that  a  much-respected  Professor  belonging  to  the 
Synod  of  the  United  Original  Seceders  has  lectured 
to  the  Minority  Free  Church  students  in  addition 
to  the  Professors  I  have  mentioned.  If  I  had  known 
in  time,  I  should  have  tried  to  find  out  whether  he 
has  written  any  books  which  indicate  his  relation 
to  the  Confession  of  Faith. 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 

Preface   .  .  .  .  .  .        .        v 


CHAPTER  I 

The  Scotch  Church.     The  Westminster  Confession  of 

Faith  .  .  .  .  .        .        i 

CHAPTER   II 
The  English  Church,     The  Thirty-nine  Articles        .      53 

CHAPTER   III 
Legal  Aspects  of  Subscription  to  the  Creeds       .        .      75 

CHAPTER  IV 
Moral  and  Religious  Aspects         .  .  .        .      87 

CHAPTER  V 
The  Remedy.    What  is  to  be  Done?  .  •        •      97 

CHAPTER  VI 
Non-Established  Churches  and  Non-National  Funds  .     106 

CHAPTER   VII 
The  Creed  of  the  Minority  Free  Church  .        .     136 


THE 

WESTMINSTER  CONFESSION 

OF   FAITH 


AND  THE 


THIRTY-NINE   ARTICLES    OF 
THE   CHURCH   OF  ENGLAND 


CHAPTER   I 

THE  SCOTCH   CHURCH 
THE  WESTMINSTER  CONFESSION   OF   FAITH 

"  Chapter  I. — Of  the  Holy  Scripture 

"  Sec.  I.  Under  the  name  of  Holy  Scripture,  or 
the  Word  of  God  written,  are  now  contained  all  the 
Books  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments,  which  are 
these : — 


OF   THE   OLD   TESTAMENT 


Genesis. 

Exodus. 

Leviticus. 

Numbers. 

Deuteronomy. 

Joshua. 

Judges. 

Ruth. 

I.  Samuel. 

II.  Samuel. 

I.  Kings. 

II.  Kings. 

I.  Chronicles. 

B 


II.  Chronicles. 

Daniel. 

Ezra. 

Hosea. 

Nehemiah. 

Joel. 

Esther. 

Amos. 

Job. 

Obadiah, 

Psalms. 

Jonah. 

Proverbs. 

Micah. 

Ecclesiastes. 

Nahum. 

The  Song  of  Songs. 

Habakkuk 

Isaiah. 

Zephaniah. 

Jeremiah. 

Haggai. 

Lamentations. 

Zechariah. 

Ezekiel. 

Malachi, 

THE  WESTMINSTER  CONFESSION   OF  FAITH 


OF   THE   NEW   TESTAMENT 


The  Gospels  accor- 
ding to  Matthew. 

Mark. 

Luke. 

John. 

The   Acts   of  the 
Apostles. 

Paul's  Epistles  to 
the  Romans. 

Corinthians  I. 

Corinthians  II. 


Galatians. 

Ephesians. 

Philippians. 

Colossians. 

Thessalonians  I. 

Thessalonians  II. 

To  Timothy  I. 

To  Timothy  II. 

To  Titus. 

To  Philemon,   [brews. 

The  Epistle  to  the  He- 


of 


The    Epistle 
James. 

The  first  and  se- 
cond Epistles 
of  Peter. 

The  first,  second, 
andthird  Epis- 
tles of  John. 

The  Epistle  of 
Jude. 

The  Revelation. 


All  which  are  given  by  inspiration  of  God,  to  be  the 
rule  of  faith  and  life." 


This  paragraph  of  the  Confession  settles  definitely 
what  books  are  to  be  reckoned  Scripture.  And  the 
person  who  signs  the  Confession  is  debarred  from 
making  further  inquiries  into  the  matter.  These 
books  and  these  alone  are  the  Scripture.  But  it  is 
impossible  for  the  mind  that  is  in  search  of  truth 
to  rest  here.  The  question  must  be  raised,  On 
whose  authority  are  these  books  set  apart  as  Scrip- 
ture? 

In  regard  to  the  Old  Testament  our  information  is 
scanty,  and  leaves  much  room  for  discussion.  The 
Law — that  is,  the  Pentateuch — was  the  first  portion  of 
the  Bible  that  was  deemed  sacred.  This  is  recorded 
as  a  fact  in  Ezra  vii.  6  and  Nehemiah,  chapters  viii.- 
X.,  and  an  extraordinary  statement  is  made  in  4 
(2)  Esdras,  chapter  xiv.,  especially  verses  9-23,  and 
also   chapter   xv.     The   dates   of  books  containing 


AND   THE   THIRTY-NINE   ARTICLES  3 

these  references  have  to  be  investigated,  and  other 
references  to  the  Law  in  Hebrew  writings  must  be 
considered  before  a  sound  opinion  can  be  formed  as 
to  how  the  Law  was  declared  sacred  and  reckoned 
to  be  the  Word  of  God. 

The  prophetico-historical  books  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment were  deemed  sacred  and  allowed  to  be  read 
in  the  Synagogues  at  a  later  date  than  the  Law. 
This  was  done  by  the  Scribes  of  Jerusalem  and  the 
Pharisees,  and  the  worth  of  their  opinion  depends 
on  the  estimate  which  may  be  formed  of  their 
critical  ability  and  their  character.  The  Confession 
of  Faith  assumes  their  infallibility. 

The  canonization,  as  it  is  now  called,  of  the 
Hagiographa,  was  not  completed  till  two  centuries 
after  the  Christian  era.  This  was  the  work  of  the 
Scribes  and  Pharisees  and  then  of  the  Jewish  Rabbis. 
The  truthseeker  must  inquire  into  the  fitness  of  these 
persons  to  determine  for  all  ages  such  important 
questions.  For  a  time  they  differed  much  among 
themselves  as  to  the  books  to  be  admitted  into  the 
Synagogue,  and  we  know  something  of  the  reasons. 
These  reasons  ought  to  be  submitted  to  the  modern 
mind — but  the  Confession  of  Faith  renders  this  im- 
possible for  one  who  signs  it  as  his  faith. 

Appeal  is  often  made  to  the  opinion  of  Christ 
— but  that  is  also  matter  for  discussion.  Christ 
quotes  only  two  or  three  of  the  Hebrew  writers  by 
name,  and   He  makes  no  quotation  at  all  from  a 


4       THE  WESTMINSTER  CONFESSION   OF  FAITH 

considerable  number  of  the  books.  He  certainly  was 
opposed  to  many  of  the  traditions  of  the  Scribes 
and  Pharisees. 

The  New  Testament  is  in  the  same  position  as  the 
Old.  It  was  not  till  the  fourth  century  that  it  was 
finally  determined  what  books  should  compose  the 
New  Testament.  There  was  much  dispute  about 
the  subject  in  the  third  century.  Books  were  then 
held  as  Scripture  which  did  not  ultimately  find  a 
place  in  the  New  Testament,  and  it  was  maintained 
by  some  that  several  books  now  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment were  not  Scripture.  The  theological  scholars 
of  the  present  day  have  many  more  materials  on 
which  to  form  a  judgment  in  regard  to  this  matter, 
and  they  have  a  surer  grasp  of  the  principles  on 
which  a  judgment  should  be  formed.  But  all  such 
inquiries  are  barred  by  the  terms  of  the  Confession 
of  Faith,  and  those  who  sign  it  have  to  believe  in  the 
infallibility  of  the  decisions  of  the  monks  and  eccle- 
siastics, who  finally  closed  the  canon  in  the  fourth 
century,  and  thus  fixed  the  number  of  books  in  the 
New  Testament. 

Those  who  composed  the  Confession  of  Faith  were 
anxious  to  throw  themselves  free  from  tradition,  and 
they  therefore  discovered  other  reasons  for  their  belief 
that  the  books  which  they  have  named  in  section  2,  are 
the  Word  of  God.  They  have  expressed  these  in 
sections  4  and  5  of  chapter  i,  which  are  as 
follows  : — 


AND  THE  THIRTY-NINE  ARTICLES  5 

"  Sec.  4.  The  authority  of  the  holy  scripture,  for 
which  it  ought  to  be  believed  and  obeyed,  dependeth 
not  upon  the  testimony  of  any  man  or  church,  but 
wholly  upon  God,  (who  is  truth  itself,)  the  author 
thereof;  and  therefore  it  is  to  be  received,  because 
it  is  the  word  of  God." 

"  Sec.  5.  We  may  be  moved  and  induced  by  the 
testimony  of  the  Church  to  an  high  and  reverend 
esteem  of  the  holy  scripture,  and  the  heavenliness  of 
the  matter,  the  efficacy  of  the  doctrine,  the  majesty 
of  the  style,  the  consent  of  all  the  parts,  the  scope  of 
the  whole,  (which  is  to  give  all  glory  to  God),  the  full 
discovery  it  makes  of  the  only  way  of  man's  salvation, 
the  many  other  incomparable  excellencies,  and  the 
entire  perfection  thereof,  are  arguments  whereby  it 
doth  abundantly  evidence  itself  to  be  the  word  of 
God  ;  yet,  notwithstanding,  our  full  persuasion  and 
assurance  of  the  infallible  truth,  and  divine  authority 
thereof,  is  from  the  inward  work  of  the  Holy  Spirit, 
bearing  witness  by  and  with  the  word  in  our  hearts." 

The  statement  in  section  4  assumes  that  the  books 
named  in  section  2  are  the  word  of  God.  It  also 
assumes  that  Holy  Scripture  is  one  work,  and  that 
God  is  the  author  of  it. 

In  section  5,  the  assertion  is  made  that  the  perfec- 
tion of  the  book  proves  that  God  is  its  author ;  but 
such  an  argument  cannot  take  the  place  of  historical 
research,  and  while  some  of  the  statements  are  true 
in  regard  to  some  books  now  included  in  Scripture, 
most  people  will  doubt  whether  they  can  apply  to 
some  others  of  the  books.  Yet  he  who  signs  the 
Confession  must  deem  the  words  true  of  all  the  books 
included  in  the  canon,  and  they  are  debarred  from 


6       THE  WESTMINSTER   CONFESSION  OF  FAITH 

discussing  the   merits  of  any  particular  one  of  the 
books. 

The  last  part  of  the  section  creates  the  greatest 
difficulty,  for  it  appeals  to  the  feelings  of  in- 
dividuals. In  one  sense  it  is  profoundly  true,  for 
it  may  be  laid  down  that  if  any  assertions  in  these 
books  that  the  Holy  Spirit,  or  the  Spirit  of  Holiness, 
makes  a  man  feel  to  be  inconsistent  with  holiness, 
or  the  love  of  man,  he  is  bound  to  regard  these  as 
not  having  been  made  by  God,  who  is  all  holiness 
and  love.  The  statement  thus  appeals  to  a  higher 
criticism,  which  is  based  on  the  moral  nature  of  man. 
Applying  such  a  test  to  a  book  like  Esther,  where  the 
name  of  God  is  not  mentioned,  and  which  breathes  a 
spirit  of  savage  revenge,  we  may  be  certain  that  it  is 
not  the  work  of  God,  but  of  Hebrew  Scribes  and 
Pharisees.  The  Jewish  writer  Montefiore,^  who  tries 
to  give  the  best  aspects  of  the  book,  makes  this  con- 
fession :  "  The  true  reasons  why  we  cannot  regard 
the  book  of  Esther  as  divine  or  inspired  are,  first, 
because  of  its  spirit  of  cruelty  and  revenge,  so  that  it 
is  not  too  strong  to  say,  with  Dr.  Adeney,  that  '  its 
last  pages  reek  with  blood '  ;  and,  secondly,  because 
there  is  little  compensation  for  this  grave  defect  in 
any  grandeur  or  beauty  of  teaching  elsewhere." 
Surely  it  is  grieving  the  Holy  Spirit  to  attribute  such 
a  work  to  God,  and  yet  he  who  signs  the  Confession 
of  Faith  does  so. 

^   The  Bible  for  Home  Reading.     Second  Part,  p.  405. 


AND  THE  THIRTY-NINE  ARTICLES  7 

"  Sec.  8.  The  Old  Testament  in  Hebrew,  (which 
was  the  native  language  of  the  people  of  God  of  old,) 
and  the  New  Testament  in  Greek,  (which  at  the  time 
of  the  writing  of  it  was  most  generally  known  to  the 
nations,)  being  immediately  inspired  by  God,  and  by 
his  singular  care  and  providence  kept  pure  in  all  ages, 
are  therefore  authentical ;  so  as  in  all  controversies 
of  religion,  the  Church  is  finally  to  appeal  unto  them. 
But  because  these  original  tongues  are  not  known  to 
all  the  people  of  God,  who  have  right  unto  and  interest 
in  the  scriptures,  and  are  commanded,  in  the  fear  of 
God,  to  read  and  search  them,  therefore  they  are  to 
be  translated  into  the  vulgar  language  of  every 
nation  unto  which  they  come,  that  the  word  of  God 
dwelling  plentifully  in  all,  they  may  worship  him  in 
an  acceptable  manner,  and  through  patience  and 
comfort  of  the  scriptures,  may  have  hope." 

This  section  affirms  that  the  Hebrew  text  of  the 
Old  Testament  and  the  Greek  text  of  the  New 
Testament  have  been  immediately  inspired  by  God, 
or,  in  other  words,  dictated  by  God,  and  that  these 
texts  have  been,  by  God's  singular  care  and  provi- 
dence— that  is,  miraculously — kept  pure  in  all  ages. 

The  first  of  these  propositions  is  commonly  called 
the  verbal  inspiration  of  Scripture.  Now,  the  difficul- 
ties in  the  way  of  this  opinion  are  enormous.  The 
inquiries  of  modern  scholars  have  led  to  a  general, 
nearly  a  universal,  belief  that  there  is  a  strong  human 
element  in  both  the  Old  and  New  Testament,  show- 
ing itself  in  discrepancies,  in  inaccuracies,  and  in 
various  other  ways.  But  he  who  signs  the  Confession 
of  Faith  must  hold  that  there  is  not  an  error  in  the 


8       THE  WESTMINSTER  CONFESSION   OF  FAITH 

books  of  Scripture  from  beginning  to  end,  and  that 
every  statement  in  them  made  in  regard  to  the 
structure  of  the  earth  and  the  heavens,  that  every 
historical  assertion  made  in  them,  and  that  all  opinions 
expressed  in  them,  are  the  statements  of  Infallible 
God. 

The  second  proposition  affirms  that  the  Hebrew 
text  of  the  Old  Testament  and  the  Greek  text  of  the 
New  Testament  have  been  pure  in  all  ages.  No 
scholar  can  believe  this.  The  Hebrew  text  of  the 
Old  Testament  is  allowed  on  all  hands  to  be  often 
corrupt  and  unintelligible.  It  is  often  impossible  to 
come  to  a  conclusion  as  to  what  the  text  really  is, 
and  it  certainly  differs  widely  from  the  text  that 
must  have  been  used  by  the  Septuagint  translators 
whom  the  Alexandrian  Jews  deemed  inspired,  and 
whose  translation  is  most  frequently  used  by  the 
writers  of  the  New  Testament. 

The  case  is  the  same  with  the  New  Testament. 
The  number  of  various  readings  is  enormous.  The 
MSS.  nearest  the  age  of  the  Apostles  present  the 
widest  divergencies  from  the  textus  receptus,  and 
the  scholars  of  the  present  day  who  have  studied  the 
papyri  discovered  in  Egypt  are  strongly  of  opinion 
that  it  is  in  the  early  stages  that  corruptions  are 
likely  to  have  been  inserted.  "In  the  first  stage  of  its 
existence,  therefore,"  says  Blass,  "  every  Gospel  was 
separate  from  other  Gospels,  and  it  is  self-evident 
that  during  that  stage  it  cannot  have  remained  quite 


AND  THE  THIRTY-NINE  ARTICLES  9 

unaltered  and  unadulterated.  That  very  first  age 
was  also,  as  we  have  seen,  that  of  least  care  in  tran- 
scribing, and  there  was  besides  another  reason  for 
corruptions  of  a  special  kind."^  Mr.  Kenyon^  makes 
similar  statements  and  explains  them.  "  It  must  be 
remembered  that  the  circumstances  of  the  tradition 
of  the  New  Testament  text  (and  especially  in  the 
case  of  the  Gospels)  for  more  than  two  hundred  years 
were  wholly  unlike  those  of  any  other  literary  work. 
We  have  no  great  libraries  enshrining  standard  copies 
of  the  precious  volumes,  no  recognised  book-trade 
multiplying  carefully  written  transcripts  of  them,  no 
scholars  keeping  a  critical  eye  on  the  purity  of  the 
text.  Instead  of  all  this,  we  have  roughly  written 
copies  circulating  from  hand  to  hand  among  congre- 
gations whose  sole  care  was  for  the  substance,  not  for 
the  precise  wording,  of  the  Gospel  narrative  ;  we 
have  the  danger  of  destruction  impending  over  them, 
if  they  were  brought  too  prominently  before  the  eye 
of  the  civil  power ;  we  have  periods  of  persecution, 
during  which  active  search  was  made  for  the  sacred 
books  of  the  prohibited  sect.  Circulating  in  this 
irregular  fashion,  and  for  the  most  part  among  popu- 
lations with  no  high  standards  of  literary  tradition, 
it  is  not  surprising  that  the  text  was  often  treated  in 
a  way  to  which  we  are  not  accustomed  in  dealing 
with   the   ordinary  works   of  literature  which  have 

*  Philology  of  the  Gospels,  p.  77. 

2  Handbook  of  the  Textual  Criticism  of  the  New  Testament,  p.  304. 


lO     THE  WESTMINSTER  CONFESSION   OF  FAITH 

descended  to  us  from  the  past.  It  would  not  seem 
unnatural,  still  less  wrong,  to  insert  additional  inci- 
dents, believed  to  be  authentic,  in  the  narrative  of 
our  Lord's  life ;  and  verbal  changes,  whether  of 
pronouns  or  proper  names,  or  of  one  synonym  for 
another,  would  be  matters  of  indifference.  To  these 
causes  of  variation  may  be  added  the  plausible,  though 
not  yet  fully  developed,  suggestion  of  retranslation 
from  the  Syriac  as  a  possible  factor  in  the  production 
of  this  type  of  text." 

With  such  facts  for  us  guaranteed  by  reverent  men 
who  are  in  the  highest  degree  competent  witnesses, 
how  is  it  possible  to  subscribe  the  affirmation  that  the 
Hebrew  and  Greek  texts  of  Scripture  have  been  kept 
pure  in  all  ages  by  God's  singular  care  and  providence  ? 
The  man  who  signs  such  an  affirmation  must  also 
affirm  that  all  textual  criticism  is  based  on  the 
wildest  fancies  of  upright  and  skilful  critics,  whose 
eyes  and  minds  have  become  subject  to  the  strangest 
delusions. 

"  Sec.  9.  The  infallible  rule  of  interpretation  of 
scripture  is  the  scripture  itself;  and  therefore,  when 
there  is  a  question  about  the  true  and  full  sense  of 
any  scripture,  (which  is  not  manifold,  but  one,)  it 
must  be  searched  and  known  by  other  places  that 
speak  more  clearly." 

This  section  asserts  that  the  meaning  of  Scripture 
is  not  manifold  but  one — in  opposition  to  the  alle- 
gorical methods  of  early  Christianity  and  schoolmen, 


AND  THE  THIRTY-NINE  ARTICLES  II 

who  got  any  number  of  meanings  out  of  the  Biblical 
words. 

"  Chapter  II. — Of  God,  and  of  the  Holy  Trinity. 

"  Sec.  3.  In  the  unity  of  the  Godhead  there  be 
three  persons,  of  one  substance,  power,  and  eternity ; 
God  the  Father,  God  the  Son,  and  God  the  Holy 
Ghost.  The  Father  is  of  none,  neither  begotten  nor 
proceeding  ;  the  Son  is  eternally  begotten  of  the 
Father  ;  the  Holy  Ghost  eternally  proceeding  from 
the  Father  and  the  Son." 

"  Chapter  VIII.— (9/  C/irist  the  Mediator. 

"  Sec.  2.  The  Son  of  God,  the  second  person  in  the 
Trinity,  being  very  and  eternal  God,  of  one  substance, 
and  equal  with  the  Father,  did,  when  the  fulness  of 
time  was  come,  take  upon  him  man's  nature,  with  all 
the  essential  properties  and  common  infirmities 
thereof,  yet  without  sin ;  being  conceived  by  the 
power  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  in  the  womb  of  the  Virgin 
Mary,  of  her  substance.  So  that  two  whole,  perfect, 
and  distinct  natures,  the  Godhead  and  the  manhood, 
were  inseparably  joined  together  in  one  person,  with- 
out conversion,  composition,  or  confusion.  Which 
person  is  very  God  and  very  man,  yet  one  Christ,  the 
only  Mediator  between  God  and  man." 

The  dogma  of  the  Trinity  was  elaborated  in  the 
fourth  century.  That  period  was  the  period  of 
the  formation  of  creeds,  and  the  history  of  it  is  filled 
with  extraordinary  discussions  as  to  the  nature  of 
God,  Christ,  and  the  Holy  Spirit,  in  which  bishops 
and  monks  vilify  each  other,  and  accuse  the  most 
distinguished  disputants  of  every  kind  of  crime,  in- 


12     THE  WESTMINSTER  CONFESSION   OF  FAITH 

eluding  murder,  treachery,  and  licentiousness.  Coun- 
cils varied  in  their  action,  sometimes  condemning 
and  sometimes  defending  the  same  men.  This  may 
seem  a  dark  picture,  and  it  is  for  each  person  to 
judge  for  himself  if  it  is  true.  The  records  are 
copious,  as  some  of  the  principal  disputants  narrated 
the  events  in  which  they  took  part,  and  there  are 
several  historians  who  made  it  their  task  to  recount 
the  transactions  of  the  period.  Among  the  infinite 
proposals  that  were  produced  one  was  that  the  Creed 
should  contain  only  the  words  of  Scripture.  But 
this  was  always  rejected.  And  so  the  doctrine  of 
the  Trinity  was  set  out  in  language  which  had  no 
place  in  Scripture.  Thus  the  word  Triad  occurs  for 
the  first  time  in  a  work  late  on  in  the  second  century, 
but  the  word  Trinity  belongs  to  the  end  of  the  second 
century.  The  word  "  persons "  is  never  used  in 
Scripture,  and  substance  is  unknown  to  it.  "  God 
the  Son  and  God  the  Holy  Ghost "  are  innovations. 
"  Eternally  begotten,"  and  "  eternally  proceeding," 
also  are  foreign  to  New  Testament  times.  The  word 
Trinity  is  first  found  in  Tertullian,  and  in  his  writings 
occur  the  words  substantia  and  persona^  which  play 
so  important  a  part  in  the  evolution  of  the  dogma. 
The  writers  of  the  Confession  of  Faith  have  followed 
Tertullian  in  the  use  of  these  terms,  and  not  the 
Greeks,  who  elaborated  the  doctrine.  It  may  be 
therefore  desirable  to  notice  Tertullian's  ideas  on  the 
subject. 


AND  THE  THIRTY-NINE  ARTICLES  1 3 

TertuUian  conceived  that  Deity  was  a  substance 
having  special  attributes  of  its  own,  just  like  light, 
to  which  he  continually  compares  it,  or  iron,  or 
water.  These  substances  never  vary  in  quantity. 
The  light  is  the  same  everywhere,  possesses  the  same 
qualities,  and  produces  the  same  effects.  Thus  the 
light  appears  in  the  sun,  in  the  moon,  in  a  candle, 
in  the  domestic  fire,  and  if  you  light  a  candle  from 
the  domestic  fire,  you  do  not,  in  Tertullian's  idea, 
diminish  the  light  of  the  domestic  fire,  but  simply 
extend  the  light.  Thus  there  are  portions  of  light 
everywhere,  but  there  is  only  one  substance  that 
is  light.  So  with  Deity.  That  substance  is  always 
the  same,  possessing  the  same  qualities  of  being 
infinite,  eternal,  almighty,  and  most  wise.  God  is 
this  entire  substance,  but  Christ  also  possesses  the 
same  qualities,  and  is  thus  a  portion  of  God.  And 
the  Holy  Spirit  is  also  a  portion  of  God.  The  three, 
therefore,  are  the  same  substance  and  possess  the 
same  qualities,  but  they  are  distinct  from  each  other. 
They  never  can  be  separated  from  each  other,  as  they 
are  the  same  substance,  or  portions  of  it,  but  they 
may  be  distinguished  from  each  other,  as  TertuUian, 
quoting  passages  from  Scripture,  endeavours  to  prove. 
And  the  distinction  can  be  expressed  by  the  word 
"  person." 

Now  this  is  the  idea  which  is  contained  in  the 
dogma  of  the  Trinity  as  embodied  in  the  Confession 
of  Faith.     It  will  strike  any  reflecting  person  that 


14     THE  WESTMINSTER  CONFESSION   OF  FAITH 

it  is  difficult  to  believe  this  dogma.  The  questions 
will  at  once  arise,  Is  there  such  a  substance  as  Deity? 
Is  there  such  a  substance  as  light?  Is  there  such 
a  substance  as  iron  ?  We  know  light  and  iron  from 
their  qualities,  but  beneath  the  qualities  do  there 
exist  substrata  on  which  these  qualities  repose  ? 

First  as  to  things  called  material.  Here  it  may 
be  noticed  that  Tertullian,  following  the  Stoics,  re- 
garded Deity  as  material,  or  as  being  body.  "Who," 
he  says,  "will  deny  that  God  is  body  {deuvi  corpus 
^i-j^),  though  God  is  Spirit  ?"i  Modern  philosophy 
has  come  to  the  conclusion  that  there  is  no  need 
of  such  a  conception  as  substance  in  regard  to 
matter.  It  is  sufficient  to  quote  the  opinion  of  Sir 
W.  Hamilton  •?  "  Substance  and  Quality  are,  mani- 
festly, only  thought  as  mutual  relatives.  We  cannot 
think  a  quality  existing  absolutely,  in  or  of  itself. 
We  are  constrained  to  think  it,  as  inhering  in  some 
basis,  substratum,  hypostasis,  subject,  or  substance ; 
but  this  substance  cannot  be  conceived  by  us,  except 
negatively,  that  is,  as  the  unapparent — the  incon- 
ceivable correlative  of  certain  appearing  qualities. 
If  we  attempt  to  think  it  positively,  we  can  think 
it  only  by  transforming  it  into  a  quality  or  bundle 
of  qualities,  which,  again,  we  are  compelled  to  refer 
to  an  unknown  substance,  now  necessarily  supposed 
for  their  incogitable  basis.  Everything,  in  fact,  may 
be   conceived    as  the  quality,  or   as  the   substance 

^  Adv.  Praxean^  c.  vii.     -^     ^  Discussions  on  Philosophy,  p.  604. 


AND  THE  THIRTY-NINE  ARTICLES  1 5 

of  something  else.  But  absolute  substance  and 
absolute  quality,  these  are  both  inconceivable,  as 
more  than  negations  of  the  conceivable.  It  is  hardly 
requisite  to  observe  that  the  term  Substance  is 
vulgarly  applied,  in  the  abusive  signification,  to 
a  congeries  of  qualities,  denoting  those  especially 
which  are  more  permanent,  in  contrast  to  those 
which  are  more  transitory." 

Mill  discusses  the  subject  in  his  Logic,  vol.  i.  p.  64, 
with  the  same  results.  All  recent  writers  on  meta- 
physics come  to  the  same  conclusions.  Mr.  Taylor 
in  his  Elements  of  Metaphysics  (1903),!  says  :  "  A  still 
more  serious  difficulty  remains  behind.  Not  only  is 
an  '  unknowable  substratum  of  qualities '  a  super- 
fluous luxury  in  metaphysical  theory,  but  the  nature 
of  the  supposed  relation  between  such  a  substratum 
and  the  attributes  which  *  flow '  from  it  is  unin- 
telligible. We  can  understand  neither  what  a 
substance  or  substratum  totally  devoid  of  qualities 
could  possibly  be,  nor  yet  how  the  various  qualities 
of  the  world  of  things  presented  to  our  experience 
could  '  flow '  as  secondary  consequences  from  one  or 
more  such  substrata." 

And  again  •}  "This  is  the  essence  of  the  doctrine 
of  Kant,  according  to  which  the  concept  of  '  sub- 
stance '  is  simply  one  form  of  the  '  synthetic  unity  of 
apperception,'  i.e.  the  process  by  which  we  project  the 
unity  of  our  own  acts  of  attention  into  their  objects, 

^  p.  132-  ^  p-  134- 


l6     THE  WESTMINSTER   CONFESSION   OF  FAITH 

and  thus  create  an  orderly  world  for  our  own  thought 
out  of  sensations  which,  as  they  are  given  to  us,  are 
a  chaos.  In  principle,  Kant's  doctrine,  though  in- 
tended as  a  refutation  of  Hume's  Associationism, 
only  differs  from  Hume's  in  the  stress  it  rightly  lays 
on  the  element  of  subjective  interest  in  perception ; 
the  two  theories  agree  on  the  main  point,  that 
the  bond  which  unites  the  many  qualities  of  sense 
perception  into  one  thing  is  a  subjective  one — in 
Hume's  expressive  phrase,  a  '  fiction  of  the  mind.' " 
Tertullian's  idea  of  substance  is  unquestionably 
based  on  what  he  conceived  to  be  the  nature  of 
matter,  though  it  must  be  remembered  that  he  con- 
ceived Spirit  to  be  material,  and  the  substance  Deity 
visible  to  God  alone.  Tertullian  evidently  drew  his 
arguments  for  the  Trinity  from  material  nature. 
"  For,"  he  says,  "  God  {protulit)  put  forth  the  Word 
(^Sermoneni)}  even  as  also  the  Paraclete  teaches,  as 
the  root  puts  forth  the  shrub  and  the  fountain  the 
river  and  the  sun  the  ray.  For  those  forms  are 
(puttings-forth)  irpo^okal  of  those  substances  out  of 
which  they  come."  And  a  few  sentences  after  this 
he  says  :  "  For  the  root  and  the  shrub  are  two  things, 
but  united  ;  and  the  fountain  and  the  river  are  two 
appearances  (species),  but  inseparable,  and  the  sun 
and  the  ray  are  two  forms,  but  cohering."  So  he 
argues,  the  Father  and  the  Son  are  two,  but  indivisible, 
but  the  Father  is  first  in  order,  the  Son  second.    And 

1  Adv.  Frax.,  c.  viii. 


AND  THE  THIRTY-NINE  ARTICLES  1/ 

the  Spirit  comes  third,  just  as  the  fruit  from  the  bush 
is  third  from  the  root,  and  the  stream  {rivus)  from 
the  river  third  from  the  fountain,  and  the  apex  (or 
end  or  top)  from  the  ray  third  from  the  sun.  But 
there  is  no  difference  made  from  the  original  source 
{matrice)  from  which  they  all  derive  their  qualities 
{proprietates)."  After  Tertullian's  time  the  material 
element  was  disowned  by  the  orthodox.  But  it  does 
not  seem  to  me  that  they  were  able  really  to 
eliminate  it  except  in  mere  words.  The  Greek  term 
on  which  orthodoxy  hang,  o/moovcriog,  does  not  appear 
to  be  more  apprehensible  than  consubstantiality. 
It  denotes  that  two  beings  co-exist,  or  have  their 
existence  inseparably  combined.  How  can  one  con- 
ceive such  a  position  ?  If  it  is  predicated  of  two 
beings  that  they  exist,  then  two  beings  exist  and  not 
one.  There  is  no  room  in  the  assertion  for  uniting  the 
two  existences  into  one  existence.  The  other  Greek 
word,  inroarraa-i^,  is  simply  the  Greek  form  of  substan- 
tia. And  so  it  was  that  British  theologians  adopted 
the  word  substance  and  put  it  into  the  Westminister 
Confession  and  the  Creeds  of  the  English  Church. 
The  difficulty  is  not  removed,  but  increased,  by  the 
use  of  the  word  "  person."  A  person  is  an  individual, 
something  that  stands  by  itself  and  cannot  be 
divided.  How,  then,  can  two  persons  or  individuals 
be  only  one  existence  ?  This  seems  to  be  incompre- 
hensible. And  the  theologians  who  formed  the 
creeds  and  confessions  came  to  a  conclusion  some- 
c 


1 8     THE   WESTMINSTER  CONFESSION   OF  FAITH 

what  of  this  kind,  for  they  allowed  that  none  of  the 
terms  used  in  the  creeds  and  confessions  is  exact,  but 
that  they  are  all  mere  adumbrations  of  an  unknown 
reality  which  it  is  beyond  the  power  of  man  to  ex- 
press in  words.  The  difficulty  also  arises  in  regard 
to  the  other  terms  used  in  the  Confession.  How  is 
it  possible  to  conceive  a  divine  person  infinite, 
almighty,  and  omniscient  as  being  eternally  begotten 
from  another  divine  person  almighty  and  omniscient, 
or  a  divine  person  infinite,  almighty,  and  omniscient 
eternally  proceeding  or  going  forth  from  two  other 
infinite,  almighty,  and  omniscient  divine  beings? 

The  nearest  solution  of  the  problem  comes  from 
the  Hegelians.  They  believe  that  they  can  compre- 
hend God  as  Absolute  Mind  and  Absolute  Reality. 
Mr.  Haldane^  quotes  from  Hegel  these  words:  "That 
Man  knows  God  implies,  in  accordance  with  the  essen- 
tial idea  of  communion  or  fellowship,  that  there  is  a 
community  of  knowledge  ;  that  is  to  say,  Man  knows 
God  only  in  so  far  as  God  Himself  knows  Himself 
in  Man.  This  knowledge  is  God's  self-consciousness, 
but  it  is  at  the  same  time  a  knowledge  of  God  on 
the  part  of  Man,  and  the  knowledge  of  God  by 
Man  is  a  knowledge  of  Man  by  God.  The  Spirit 
of  Man,  whereby  he  knows  God,  is  simply  the  Spirit 
of  God  Himself." 

Every  thought  and  thing  in  the  universe  are 
evolutions  of  the  Divine  mind,  and  man  compre- 
hends God  because,  as  we  might  express  it  in  more 

^   The  Pathway  to  Reality,  vol.  i.  p.  l68. 


AND   THE   THIRTY-NINE  ARTICLES  I9 

common  language,  there  is  nothing  in  the  universe 
but  Mind,  and  man's  mind  is  a  part  or  exhibition  of 
God's  mind.  The  Hegelians  have  no  difficulty  in 
explaining  the  Trinity.  Mr.  Haldane^  presents  the 
explanation  thus  :  "  You  have  in  the  New  Testament 
the  recognition  of  the  three  moments  on  which 
metaphysics  lays  such  stress.  You  have,  first  of  all, 
that  which  in  philosophy  would  be  the  aspect  which 
belongs  to  what  Hegel  calls  '  Logic ' — I  mean  the 
aspect  which  represents  Mind  taken  in  itself  and 
apart  from  its  consciousness  of  itself  in  another. 
Mind  in  itself  may  be  said  to  represent  what  in 
theological  language  is  described  as  the  Father.  In 
the  element  of  the  Son  you  have  mind  gone  into 
otherness,  hetereity,  finite  mind,  the  nature  of  which 
is  conditioned  by  the  externality  which,  as  we  saw, 
is  only  for  and  through  the  finite  mind  —  God, 
in  other  words,  imposing  on  Himself  the  limits 
of  man's  finitude,  and  so  only,  in  this  fashion  alone, 
coming  into  direct  relation  with  nature,  with  evil, 
and  with  death.  Then  there  is  the  third  moment 
in  the  movement,  the  return  of  the  Absolute  Mind 
into  itself  in  the  fulness  of  its  self-consciousness, 
the  Holy  Spirit,  the  aspect  in  the  Trinity  which  is 
in  reality  the  logical  prius  of  the  two  other  aspects, 
aspects  which  are  inseparable  only  in  abstraction." 

This  solution  of  the  mystery  does  not  help  us 
in  believing  the  Creeds.  "The  Creeds  have  always 
spoken  in  pictorial  language,"  but  pictorial  language 

^   The  Pathway  to  Reality,  vol.  i.  p.  162. 


20     THE   WESTMINSTER   CONFESSION   OF   FAITH 

leads  to  constant  strife.  "  As  it  is  stated  in  the 
Creeds,  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity  is  essentially  a 
doctrine  which  can  be  adequately  expressed  only  in 
metaphysical  language."  None,  therefore,  but  a 
metaphysician  need  attempt  it.  Probably  none 
but  a  Hegelian  thinks  that  he  can  apprehend  what 
Absolute  Mind  or  Absolute  Reality  is,  or  can 
explain  what  is  meant  by  Absolute,  or  what  is  meant 
by  Mind,  or  what  is  meant  by  Reality. 

If  this  account  of  the  Articles  of  the  Confession  of 
Faith  on  the  Trinity  is  correct,  then  they  are  unin- 
telligible, and  if  this  be  the  case  no  one  can  believe 
them,  and  at  the  most  all  must  doubt  whether  they 
can  believe  them.  The  circumstances  in  which  the 
Nicene  Creed  was  framed  show  how  this  peculiarity 
of  the  dogma  arose.  The  Orthodox  were  resolved 
to  adopt  terms  which  would  exclude  Arians  from 
agreeing  to  the  Creed.  They  were  anxious  specially 
to  gain  this  object.  They  affirmed  that  Arius 
maintained  that  Christ  was  a  creature,  made  out  of 
things  non-existent.  Language  must  be  used  which 
would  be  a  flat  contradiction.  The  idea  of  begetting 
suggested  itself  principally  from  the  term  in  the  first 
chapter  of  St.  John's  Gospel,  /uLovoyevijs,  "  only  be- 
gotten," but  they  inserted  into  this  interpretation  of 
the  verse  the  words  "by  nature"  {(pua-ei)}  Then  when 
they  found  that  it  was  proposed  to  call  the  son  "  true 
God,"  the  Eusebian  Arians  nodded  to  each  other  that 

^  Theodoret,  £cc/.  Hist.,  i.  8,  p.  29,  quoting  from  Athanasius. 


AND  THE  THIRTY-NINE  ARTICLES  21 

there  was  no  objection  to  this,  whereupon  the  Ortho- 
dox, basing  their  action  on  the  words  "  the  bright- 
ness," "  the  fountain  and  river,"  and  "  express  image," 
and  referring  them  to  substance  and  also  on  the  pass- 
age "  I  and  the  Father  are  one,"  wrote  the  "  Son  of 
the  identical  ovcria  ojuoovaio?,"  that  is,  "of  the  identical 
substance,  existence,  or  essence  with  the  Father." 
Hence  the  word  begotten  was  introduced,  though 
this  word  was  not  new,  as  it  is  continually  used  by 
Tertullian  and  defended  by  numerous  passages  from 
Scripture.  Most  of  these  passages  are  taken  from 
the  Old  Testament,  and  their  reference  to  Christ  is 
extremely  doubtful.  One  of  them  in  Proverbs  viii. 
22,  perplexed  the  Orthodox  much.  The  words  in 
the  Septuagint  run,  "  The  Lord  created  me  the 
beginning  of  his  ways  to  his  works."  All  agreed 
that  this  referred  to  Christ.  Another  passage  most 
frequently  quoted  is  Psalm  ii.  7,  "  The  Lord  said, 
Thou  art  my  son  ;  this  day  have  I  begotten  thee." 
This  is  regarded  as  referring  to  the  Messiah,  and 
a  portion  of  the  earliest  Christians  took  the  saying 
as  being  fulfilled  at  the  baptism  of  Jesus  when  God, 
they  thought,  recognised  him  as  the  Messiah,  and 
Jesus  first  conceived  the  idea  of  his  Messianic 
mission.  Hence  so  many  historians  of  Jesus  are 
inclined  to  think  that  not  only  the  second  and  fourth 
Gospels,  but  also  the  first  and  third,  began  with  the 
narrative  of  the  baptism  of  Jesus.  But  whatever 
the  words  mean,  they  can  have  no  reference  to  the 


22     THE  WESTMINSTER  CONFESSION   OF  FAITH 

nature  of  Christ's  existence.  And  it  is  not  likely 
that  the  Scripture  writers  would  have  used  yewdco 
for  this  purpose,  as  it  is  a  word  dealing  originally 
with  a  purely  sexual  matter,  and  might  be  appro- 
priately employed  as  an  expression  of  the  adoption 
of  a  son,  but  cannot  be  applied  to  express  with  any 
appropriateness  the  mode  by  which  a  divine  being 
came  into  existence,  especially  when  what  the 
Orthodox  desired  to  express  was  that  he  never  came 
into  existence,  but  existed  from  eternity. 

The  word  "  person "  presents  similar  difficulties, 
but  there  is  nothing  in  the  Scriptures  to  explain  it. 
And  it  is  often  impossible  to  find  out  what  definite 
meaning  the  Orthodox  attached  to  it.  The  sense  in 
which  Tertullian  takes  the  word  is  open  to  doubt. 
A  recent  writer  has  made  a  thorough  investigation 
into  the  meaning  of  homoousios  and  other  terms 
used  in  the  Nicene  and  other  Creeds,  and  in  the  dis- 
cussion of  these  begins  his  exposition  by  the  remark: 
"  In  regard  to  the  Latin  word  persona,  the  most  im- 
portant fact  to  notice  is  that,  during  the  period  with 
which  we  have  to  deal,  it  practically  never  means 
what  'person'  means  in  modern  popular  usage." ^ 
But  of  course  it  is  the  popular  usage  according  to 
which  most,  if  not  all,  understand  the  word  in  the 
Confession  of  Faith  and  the  Creeds.  Mr.  Baker 
says  further :  "  But  in  general  the  word  is  used  by 
Tertullian  to  designate  status  or  character  or  part  or 

^  Tex/s  and  Studies,  vol.  vii.,  No.  I,  by  J.  F.  Bethune-Baker,  p.  70. 


AND   THE  THIRTY-NINE  ARTICLES  2$ 

function."  But  if  it  is  function,  this  comes  very 
nearly  to  saying  that  the  Father,  Son,  and  Holy 
Spirit  represent  but  three  functions  of  the  One  God, 
so  that  the  Trinity  is  a  trinity  of  Functions  and 
mere  modes  of  looking  at  God's  activity,  not  a  real 
Trinity  at  all. 

The  difficulties  become  enormous  when  an  attempt 
is  made,  as  the  Confession  does,  to  define  the  exact 
relations  which  existed  between  the  divine  and 
human  natures  in  Christ.  First  it  is  said  that  he 
was  "  conceived  by  the  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost, 
in  the  womb  of  the  Virgin  Mary,  of  her  substance." 
Probably  substance  means  here  what  it  means  in 
the  section  on  the  Trinity.  As  there  is  a  substance 
deity,  so  there  is  a  substance  humanity.  Mary  was 
a  portion  of  humanity,  and  therefore  her  son  was 
also.  But  writers,  as  far  as  I  know,  do  not  carry 
out  the  idea.  If  humanity,  like  deity,  is  a  substance, 
then  there  can  only  be  one  man  and  millions  of 
persons  in  that  man.  And  it  will  be  more  easily 
allowed  that  the  humanity  substance  is  a  fiction. 

It  is  possible  that  substance  may  mean  in  the 
Confession  the  material  composition  of  man,  "con- 
ceived," that  is,  of  the  body  of  Mary.  But  here  again 
there  is  no  substratum.  The  body  of  man  has 
nothing  permanent  in  it,  but,  on  the  contrary,  its 
composition  is  in  continual  flux,  since  all  parts  of 
the  body  grow  and  decay  and  pass  away  entirely 
from  a  continuous  organic  existence. 


24     THE  WESTMINSTER  CONFESSION   OF  FAITH 

The  birth  from  a  virgin  also  presents  difficulties. 
This  part  of  the  dogma  depends  upon  the  pre- 
liminary chapters  in  the  Gospels  of  St.  Matthew  and 
St.  Luke,  and  on  incorrect  interpretations  of  passages 
in  the  Old  Testament,  which  certainly  referred  to 
other  persons  than  Mary,  and  other  times  than  those 
of  Christ.  If  the  dogma  were  correct,  it  would  raise 
strange  suspicions  in  regard  to  the  character  of 
Joseph  and  Mary.  If  we  are  to  trust  the  accounts 
of  the  evangelists,  the  people  believed  that  Jesus  was 
the  son  of  Joseph  (Luke  iv.  22),  and  said  :  "  Is  not 
this  Jesus  the  son  of  Joseph,  whose  father  and 
mother  we  know?"  (John  vi.  42),  and  Philip  expressly 
describes  him  as  "  the  son  of  Joseph  who  is  from 
Nazareth."  Did  Mary  lend  herself  to  the  deception 
that  he  was  the  son  of  Joseph,  and  conceal  his 
miraculous  birth  —  an  event  which  would  have 
attracted  great  attention  as  a  remarkable  prodigy  ? 

Then  how  could  the  exclamations  which  the 
people  uttered  in  regard  to  Christ  arise,  if  Mary 
had  said  anything  about  the  miraculous  birth  men- 
tioned in  the  preliminary  chapters  of  the  two 
Gospels?  "Is  not  this  the  son  of  the  carpenter? 
Is  not  his  mother  called  Mary  and  his  brothers 
James  and  Joseph  and  Simon  and  Judas  ?  And  are 
not  his  sisters  all  with  us?"  (Matt.  xiii.  55,  56; 
Mark  vi.  2,  3).  The  evangelists  also  mention  his 
brothers  and  sisters  in  other  passages — Mark  iii. 
32-35,  Matt.  xii.  46-50,  Luke  viii.  19-21,  John  ii. 


AND   THE   THIRTY-NINE  ARTICLES  2$ 

12,  vii.  3,  5,  10  ;  Acts  i,  14.  Without  any  modifying 
statement  in  these  verses,  the  inevitable  belief  of  an 
ordinary  reader  would  be  that  the  brothers  and 
sisters  were  the  children  of  Joseph  and  Mary,  and 
the  ingenious  attempts  to  explain  them  otherwise 
are  plainly  the  product  of  dogmatic  prepossessions. 
Mary  could  not  therefore  be  believed  to  be  a  virgin 
if  she  had  a  considerable  family.  If,  further,  theo- 
logians maintain  that  she  was  a  virgin  both  when 
she  conceived  and  when  she  bore  Christ,  they  must 
adopt  the  statements  invented  by  the  makers  of  the 
apocryphal  histories  of  Christ  and  of  Mary,  that 
the  foetus  " clauso  utero  intravit  et  exivit  de  virgine" 
The  narrator  adds,  in  order  to  explain  how  Christ 
entered  and  came  out  of  the  womb,  "  qui  januis 
clausis  ad  discipulos  intravit"  that,  in  other  words, 
the  body  of  the  foetus  was  supernatural,  and  passed, 
like  Christ's  resurrection  body,  through  all  material 
obstacles.  The  scepticism  of  Salome,  as  represented 
in  the  Protevangelium  Jacobin  c,  xix.,  would  also  be 
justified  :  eav  fir\  ^aXw  rov  SciktuXov  fxov  koi  epevvricrw 
Trjv  (pvatv  avrfj?,  ov  /ixr]  TriG-revarco  on  irapQivo'i  eyevvrfcrev} 
Nothing  seems  to  be  gained  by  such  a  belief,  but,  on 
the  contrary,  it  increases  the  difficulties  of  the  case. 
If  the  conception  and  birth  of  Christ  were  super- 
natural, then  there  may  well  be  doubts  whether 
He  was  a  real  man.  Christ  would  be  the  only  man 
of  whom   it   could   be   said    that   he   was   created. 

^  Transitus  Maries,  Apocalypses  Apocryphce,  ed.  Tischendorf,  p.  122. 


26     THE  WESTMINSTER   CONFESSION   OF  FAITH 

According  to  Genesis,  Adam  was  made  out  of  clay 
and  breath,  or  Spirit.  Eve  was  made  out  of  a  rib. 
All  other  human  beings  have  been  begotten.  Christ 
alone,  of  all  intelligent  beings,  according  to  the 
virgin  theory,  was  created  out  of  nothing,  though 
we  must  add  that  philosophers  like  Sir  William 
Hamilton  regard  the  notion  of  creation  out  of 
nothing  as  unthinkable.^  Surely  the  discussion  of 
this  part  of  the  Confession  is  somewhat  of  the  nature 
of  a  petty  detail,  and  it  is  of  no  consequence  whether 
a  man  believes  it  or  not.  But  the  other  questions 
that  arise  have  been  deemed  of  supreme  importance. 
What  was  the  relation  of  the  divine  nature  to  the 
human  nature  in  Christ?  Did  the  divine  reason 
think  in  Christ,  or  had  he  reason  also  as  a  man  ? 
Did  the  Divine  will  resolve  in  Christ,  or  had  he,  as 
a  man,  a  will  of  his  own  ?  Were  the  acts  attributed 
to  him  in  the  Gospels  accommodations  to  the  weak- 
ness of  his  fellow  men  ?  Could  he  have  cured  every- 
body in  the  world  ?  And,  if  he  could,  why  did  he 
not  do  this  ?  What  were  the  limitations  that  human 
nature  imposed  on  his  divine  nature  ?  It  is  easy 
to  see  that  infinite  materials  for  discussion  arise  out 
of  the  dogma.  And,  in  fact,  for  centuries  con- 
troversies raged  about  the  dogma,  and  heresy  after 
heresy  broke  out.  If  anyone  attempts  to  read  the  five 
volumes  of  the  English  translation  of  Dorner's  Doc- 
trine of  the  Person  of  Christ,  he  must  be  a  man  of 

^  Essays,  p.  620. 


AND  THE  THIRTY-NINE  ARTICLES  27 

extraordinarily  strong  brain  if  he  does  not  feel  utterly 
bewildered  by  the  various  ideas  that  have  sprung 
up  in  the  human  mind  in  regard  to  the  person  of 
Christ.  The  heresies  which  Dorner  explains  are  ex- 
ceedingly numerous  and  perplexing,  and  it  is  doubtful 
if  anyone  could  without  book  state  what  is  meant  by 
Patripassianism,  Arianism,  Semi-Arianism,  Homoi- 
ousianism,  Anomoiousianism,  Meletianism,  Euty- 
chianism,  Apollinarianism,  Nestorianism,  Monothele- 
tism,  Monophysitism,  Adoptianism,  Docetism,  Nihil- 
ianism,  and  a  number  of  other  isms.  And  yet  if  one 
cannot  explain  these  isms,  he  is  almost  certain  to  fall 
into  one  or  other  of  them  without  knowing  it,  if  he 
attempts  to  think  out  the  problem  of  the  union  of 
the  Divine  and  the  human  nature  in  Christ.  How 
can  ordinary  persons,  with  no  capacity  for  meta- 
physics, master  such  a  subject  and  have  sure  beliefs 
in  regard  to  it  ? 

And  one  sees  how  the  only  way  to  settle  such 
a  matter  is  the  way  that  was  taken  to  effect  this 
in  the  fourth  century.  An  autocratic  emperor, 
Theodosius,  issued  a  decree  that  all  who  did  not 
believe  as  his  decree  ordered  them  to  believe  should 
be  declared  heterodox  and  should  be  punished.  And 
to  this  day  those  alone  are  reckoned  orthodox  by 
large  bodies  of  Christians  who  obey  the  decree 
of  Theodosius. 

It  seems  to  me  that  the  orthodox  theologians  of 
the  fourth  century  made  a  double  mistake.     First 


28     THE  WESTMINSTER   CONFESSION   OF  FAITH 

they  took  it  for  granted  that  religion  was  a  matter 
of  the  intellect,  not  of  the  heart.  In  ordinary  life 
no  one  makes  this  mistake.  We  do  not  inquire  into 
the  metaphysical  constitution  of  a  man  before  we 
trust  him  or  love  him.  We  do  not  think  it  necessary 
to  decide  for  ourselves  whether  a  man  is  composed 
of  body,  soul,  and  spirit,  or  of  body  and  soul  only,  or 
of  body  only,  before  we  trust  and  love  him.  We 
do  not  stipulate  in  regard  to  feelings  and  actions 
that  we  must  not  feel  and  act  towards  a  man  until  we 
have  come  to  absolutely  clear  opinions  in  regard 
to  the  relation  between  soul  and  body.  And  so 
throughout  the  Old  and  New  Testaments  God  and 
Christ  are  to  be  loved  because  they  are  entitled  to 
our  love.  They  draw  out  our  affections.  No  meta- 
physical explanation  is  given  of  their  natures. 

The  second  mistake  the  men  of  the  fourth  century 
made  was  to  introduce  a  notion  of  the  word  "  God  " 
which  made  the  distance  between  God  and  man 
infinite  and  impassable.  It  was  quite  different  in 
antiquity  and  in  the  Scriptures.  According  to 
Homeric  and  later  ideas  the  race  of  gods  and  men 
was  one  race.  Gods  and  men  were  kindred  to  each 
other,  and  in  later  times  men  might  be  raised  to  the 
godhead.  The  gods  whom  Cicero^  and  Horace^ 
seem  to  love  best  are  the  gods  like  Bacchus,  ^scu- 
lapius.  Castor  and   Pollux,  Hercules  and   Quirinus, 

^  Tusculan.  Disput.y  lib.  i.  12-17  \   De  Legibus,  lib.  ii.  8-19. 
"^  Od.  iii.  3-9. 


AND  THE  THIRTY-NINE  ARTICLES  29 

who  raised  themselves  to  divinity  by  the  benefits 
they  conferred  on  mankind.  The  same  notion  of 
the  godhead  appears  in  the  Old  and  New  Testa- 
ments. "Jesus  answered  them,  Is  it  not  written 
in  your  law,  I  said  ye  are  gods  ?  If  he  called  them 
gods,  unto  whom  the  word  of  God  came  (and  the 
Scripture  cannot  be  broken),  say  ye  of  him,  whom 
the  Father  sanctified  and  sent  into  the  world.  Thou 
blasphemest;  because  I  said,  I  am  the  Son  of  God  ?  "^ 
The  words  which  offended  the  Jews  on  this  occasion 
were,  "  I  and  my  Father  are  one  (eV),"-  where  Christ 
evidently  means,  "  I  and  my  Father  are  united  in 
the  closest  relationship  of  activity  and  feeling." 
Afterwards  he  uses  the  same  expression  to  indicate 
the  unity  of  himself  and  his  disciples.  "  Holy 
Father,  keep  them  in  thy  name  in  which  thou  hast 
given  them  to  me  that  they  may  be  one  (eV)  even 
as  we." 2  "  Neither  for  these  only  do  I  pray,  but  for 
them  also  who  believe  on  me  through  their  word  ; 
that  they  all  may  be  one  (ev) ;  even  as  thou,  Father, 
art  in  me  and  I  in  Thee,  that  they  also  may  be 
in  us."*  "And  the  glory  which  thou  hast  given  me 
I  have  given  unto  them,  that  they  may  be  one  (ev) 
even  as  we  are  one  (ev) ;  I  in  them  and  thou  in  me, 
that  they  may  be  perfected  into  one  (eV)."^  In  Peter 
i.  4  it  is  said  that  Christians  have  received  precious 

^  John  X.  34.  ^  John  x.  30. 

'  John  xvii,  11.  *  John  xvii.  20,  21. 

^  John  xvii.  22,  23. 


30    THE   WESTMINSTER   CONFESSION   OF   FAITH 

promises  "  in  order  that  through  these  ye  may  be- 
come partakers  of  a  divine  nature."  Justin  Martyr 
points  out  the  state  of  the  case  exactly.  The 
Supreme  God  is  the  nameless  God.  "  For,"  he 
says,  "  no  one  can  give  a  name  to  the  indescribable 
God ;  and  if  anyone  would  dare  to  say  that  there 
is  a  name,  he  is  utterly  mad."^  Accordingly  God 
has  no  name :  the  words  Father,  God,  Creator,  Lord, 
and  Ruler  are  not  proper  names,  but  appellations 
given  in  consequence  of  good  deeds  and  functions. 
In  other  Christian  writers  of  the  second  century  men 
are  called  gods  (Oeol),^  and  Clemens  Alexandrinus 
stated  that  the  aim  of  Christianity  was  to  make  men 
Gods.^ 

The  same  close  connexion  between  God  and  man 
is  involved  in  the  doctrine  of  the  Logos.  Christ 
is  the  incarnation  of  the  Logos  or  the  Reason  of  God 
which  has  come  to  expression  or  to  consciousness,  as 
the  Hegelians  would  say.  The  Logos  existed  as  an 
activity  of  God  from  before  all  time.  And  he 
showed  himself  forth  bodily  in  Christ.  But  what- 
ever man,  Jew  or  pagan,  had  a  spark  of  reason  in 
him,  he  got  that  spark  from  the  Reason  of  God,  that 
is,  from  Christ.  Thus  Christianity  really  existed  from 
the  first  dawn  of  creation  more  or  less  in  all  men, 

^  Apo/.  i.  c.  Ixvi.  p.  94<f. 

*  Apo/.  ii.  c.  vi.  p.  44^. 

^  The  principal  passages  are  enumerated  in  Mayor's  note,  p.  203, 
in  Hort's  and  in  his  edition  of  the  Seventh  Book  of  Clement's  Mis- 
cellanies,  and  reference  is  made  to  other  discussions  of  the  subject. 


AND  THE  THIRTY-NINE  ARTICLES  3 1 

and  the  final  aim  of  Christianity  is  to  make  all  men 
reasonable  or  Christlike  in  a  perfect  degree. 

The  doctrine  of  the  Trinity  thus  made  prominent 
a  new  and  purely  metaphysical  aspect  of  the  Divine 
Being.  It  is  not  for  man  to  impose  these  meta- 
physical speculations  on  his  fellow  men  as  absolute 
truth,  or  even  as  ascertained  truth.  Where  there  is 
a  revelation  the  amount  of  belief  required  can  only 
be  the  exact  amount  of  opinion  explicitly  declared 
in  the  words  of  the  revelation.  The  Scotch  divines 
have  generally  acknowledged  this.  It  is  perfectly 
legitimate  to  speculate  on  the  nature  of  God  and 
Christ,  but  it  is  essential  to  stamp  these  discussions 
as  speculations,  and  as  poor  endeavours  of  weak 
man  to  comprehend  subjects  which  are  probably 
beyond  his  powers. 

Dr.  Chalmers,  who  was  orthodox  on  the  dogma, 
says  in  his  Lectures  in  Divinity  (p,  226):  "  It  is  truly 
instructive  to  observe  that  the  only  verse  which  was 
conceived  to  give  a  Scriptural  expression  of  what 
I  have  called  the  complex  or  comprehensive  propo- 
sition, is  given  up,  and,  I  believe,  warrantably  and 
rightly  given  up,  by  the  great  majority  of  critics. 
All  Scripture  is  profitable ;  and  if  the  separate 
propositions  are  clearly  expressed  there,  but  not  the 
general  one,  what  is  this  to  say  but  that  the  main 
edification  and  practical  benefit  of  the  doctrine  lay 
in  its  elementary  truths,  and  not  in  the  generalised 
article  which  the  controversalists  have  drawn  out  of 


32     THE  WESTMINSTER  CONFESSION   OF  FAITH 

it?  We  dispute  not  the  soundness  of  their  deduc- 
tion, we  dispute  not  the  necessity  of  a  generalised 
expression  in  opposition  to  heretics  who  set  them- 
selves in  opposition  even  to  the  separate  and  elemen- 
tary truths  ;  but  when  we  find  that  these  truths, 
instead  of  being  exhibited  in  conjunction  in  the 
Bible,  are  brought  forward  in  almost  every  instance 
individually  and  by  themselves,  what  is  this  but  to 
say  that  the  great  moral  and  practical  influence  of 
this  revelation  lies  in  our  being  made  to  know  that 
the  Son,  our  Saviour,  is  God,  and  that  the  Spirit,  our 
Sanctifier,  is  God  ?  It  is  delightful  to  understand 
that  in  preaching  we  have  not  to  perplex  ourselves 
with  the  adjustments  of  the  schoolmen,  which,  though 
they  did  achieve  the  service  of  lifting  up  a  safe- 
guard against  the  influence  of  heresy,  did  not  at  the 
same  time  change  the  essential  quality  of  Scriptural 
truth,  or  the  power  of  that  truth  when  Scripturally 
enforced  on  the  consciences  of  men.  I  cannot  too 
earnestly  or  repeatedly  insist  upon  it,  that  your 
business  in  the  pulpit  is  to  be  expounders  of  the 
Scriptural  and  not  expounders  of  the  scholastic 
theology.  It  is  indeed  remarkable  that  there  is  no 
explicit  assertion  |of  the  union  between  the  persons 
in  the  Godhead  in  the  Bible,  however  fairly,  and 
indeed,  irresistibly,  that  union  is  deducible  from  the 
separate  propositions  which  enter  into  the  doctrine 
of  the  Trinity.  Still,  we  never  find  it  brought 
forward  in  this  general  form  for  any  moral  or  prac- 


AND   THE   THIRTY-NINE   ARTICLES  33 

tical  purpose,  as  our  Saviour's  divinity  is,  for  example 
to  enforce  the  virtue  of  condescension  and  humility. 
Indeed,  whether  any  moral  was  expressly  founded 
or  not  on  the  separate  proposition  of  Christ  being 
God  and  the  Spirit  being  God,  the  relations  in  which 
they  respectively  stand  to  us,  the  offices  which  they 
discharge  in  our  behalf,  give  the  highest  practical 
consequence  to  the  information  that  each  of  them 
is  divine.  I  should  like  if,  as  the  result  of  our 
earnest  and  oft-recurring  observations  on  this  topic, 
you  learned  to  disengage  the  scholastic  from  the 
Scriptural  when  enforcing  from  the  pulpit  any  of  the 
doctrines  which  are  related  to  the  Trinity ;  and  I 
should  further  rejoice  if,  in  virtue  of  the  frequency 
wherewith  we  have  applied  it,  it  were  impressed  on 
you  as  a  general  principle  that  might  be  carried  over 
the  whole  extent  of  doctrinal  theology." 


"  Chapter  IV. — Of  Creation. 

"  Sec.  I.  It  pleased  God  the  Father,  Son,  and  Holy 
Ghost,  for  the  manifestation  of  the  glory  of  his 
eternal  power,  wisdom,  and  goodness,  in  the  begin- 
ning, to  create,  or  make  of  nothing,  the  world,  and 
all  things  therein,  whether  visible  or  invisible,  in  the 
space  of  six  days,  and  all  very  good." 

Here  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  writer  of 
Genesis  and  the  framers  of  the  Confession  of  Faith 
meant  six  ordinary  days,  with  the  evening  and  the 
morning  constituting  a  day.     The  attempt  to  square 


34     THE  WESTMINSTER   CONFESSION   OF   FAITH 

Genesis  with  science  by  making  the  days  epochs  is 
contrary  to  all  the  rules  of  exegesis,  and  probably 
no  one  supposes  that  the  writer  of  Genesis  or  the 
framers  of  the  Confession  had  any  idea  of  epochs. 
Unquestionably  some  of  the  writers  of  antiquity,  as 
Philo,  might  imagine  such  an  interpretation  possible, 
for  their  rules  of  exegesis  allowed  a  very  wide 
liberty,  but  the  framers  of  the  Confession  particu- 
larly hit  at  such  licence  by  the  words  in  chapter  ii, 
section  9,  "  and  therefore  when  there  is  a  question 
about  the  true  and  full  sense  of  any  scripture  (which 
is  not  manifold,  but  one)." 

The  persons  who  sign  the  Confession  must  hold 
that  the  discoveries  of  the  science  of  geology  as  to 
the  mode  of  the  development  of  animal  life  are 
entirely  wrong.  They  must  be  out  -  and  -  out 
opponents  of  evolution.  They  must  also  assume 
that  the  narratives  of  Genesis  are  literally  accurate, 
that  there  was  a  tree  of  life,  and  that  the  serpent 
tempted  Eve.  Genesis  also  enables  us  to  form  an 
idea  of  the  length  of  time  during  which  the  writer 
believed  the  world  to  have  existed,  for  it  gives  the 
number  of  years  which  elapsed  from  Adam's  creation, 
which  took  place  on  the  sixth  day  of  creation,  till 
some  events  whose  dates  can  be  ascertained  historic- 
ally. There  is  uncertainty  about  the  exact  numbers, 
for  the  Septuagint  differs  considerably  from  the 
Hebrew.  But  the  numbers  in  Genesis,  whatever 
form  of  the  text  is  adopted,  would  compel  us  to 


AND  THE   THIRTY-NINE   ARTICLES  35 

believe  that  the  world  was  created  at  the  utmost 
six  or  seven  thousand  years  ago,  and  he  who 
believes  the  Confession  of  Faith  must  believe  that 
geology  is  entirely  wrong  in  this  matter,  and  the 
Egyptian  and  Babylonian  records  are  not  to  be 
trusted.  All  research  in  geology  and  remote 
antiquity  must  be  strictly  forbidden  by  a  Church 
who  holds  to  this  Confession. 

"Chapter  III. — Of  God's  Eternal  Decree. 

"  Sec.  3.  By  the  decree  of  God,  for  the  manifesta- 
tion of  his  glory,  some  men  and  angels  are  pre- 
destinated unto  everlasting  life,  and  others  fore- 
ordained to  everlasting  death." 

"Sec.  4.  These  angels  and  men,  thus  predestinated 
and  foreordained,  are  particularly  and  unchangeably 
designed ;  and  their  number  is  so  certain  and 
definite,  that  it  cannot  be  either  increased  or 
diminished." 

"  Sec.  5.  Those  of  mankind  that  are  predestinated 
unto  life,  God,  before  the  foundation  of  the  world 
was  laid,  according  to  his  eternal  and  immutable 
purpose,  and  the  secret  counsel  and  good  pleasure 
of  his  will,  hath  chosen  in  Christ  unto  everlasting 
glory,  out  of  his  mere  free  grace  and  love,  without 
any  foresight  of  faith  and  good  works,  or  per- 
severance in  either  of  them,  or  any  other  thing  in 
the  creature,  as  conditions,  or  causes  moving  him 
thereunto ;  and  all  to  the  praise  of  his  glorious 
grace." 

"  Sec.  6.  As  God  hath  appointed  the  elect  unto 
glory,  so  hath  he,  by  the  eternal  and  most  free 
purpose  of  his  will,  foreordained  all  the  means 
thereunto.     Wherefore  they  who  are  elected  being 


36     THE  WESTMINSTER   CONFESSION   OF  FAITH 

fallen  in  Adam,  are  redeemed  by  Christ ;  are  effectu- 
ally called  unto  faith  in  Christ  by  his  Spirit  working 
in  due  season  ;  are  justified,  adopted,  sanctified,  and 
kept  by  his  power  through  faith  unto  salvation. 
Neither  are  any  other  redeemed  by  Christ,  effectually 
called,  justified,  adopted,  sanctified,  and  saved,  but 
the  elect  only." 

"  Sec.  7.  The  rest  of  mankind,  God  was  pleased, 
according  to  the  unsearchable  counsel  of  his  own 
will,  whereby  he  extendeth  or  withholdeth  mercy  as 
he  pleaseth,  for  the  glory  of  his  sovereign  power 
over  his  creatures,  to  pass  by,  and  to  ordain  them  to 
dishonour  and  wrath  for  their  sin,  to  the  praise  of  his 
glorious  justice." 

"  Chapter  V. — Of  Providence. 

"  Sec.  6.  As  for  those  wicked  and  ungodly  men, 
whom  God  as  a  righteous  judge,  for  former  sins,  doth 
blind  and  harden,  from  them  he  not  only  withholdeth 
his  grace,  whereby  they  might  have  been  enlightened 
in  their  understandings,  and  wrought  upon  in  their 
hearts  ;  but  sometimes  also  withdraweth  the  gifts 
which  they  had,  and  exposeth  them  to  such  objects 
as  their  corruption  makes  occasion  of  sin;  and  withal, 
gives  them  over  to  their  own  lusts,  the  temptations 
of  the  world,  and  the  power  of  Satan  :  whereby  it 
comes  to  pass,  that  they  harden  themselves  even 
under  those  means  which  God  useth  for  the  softening 
of  others." 

"  Chapter  X. — 0/  Effectual  Calling. 

*'•  Sec  \.  All  those  whom  God  hath  predestinated 
unto  life,  and  those  only,  he  is  pleased,  in  his  appointed 
and  accepted  time  effectually  to  call,  by  his  word 
and  Spirit,  out  of  that  state  of  sin  and  death  in 
which  they  are  by  nature,  to  grace  and  salvation  by 


AND  THE  THIRTY-NINE   ARTICLES  37 

Jesus  Christ ;  enlightening  their  minds  spiritually 
and  savingly  to  understand  the  things  of  God  ; 
taking  away  their  heart  of  stone,  and  giving  unto 
them  an  heart  of  flesh  ;  renewing  their  wills,  and  by 
his  almighty  power  determining  them  to  that  which 
is  good ;  and  effectually  drawing  them  to  Jesus 
Christ ;  yet  so  as  they  come  most  freely,  being  made 
willing  by  his  grace." 

"  Sec.  3.  Elect  infants,  dying  in  infancy,  are  regen- 
erated and  saved  by  Christ  through  the  Spirit,  who 
worketh  when,  and  where,  and  how  he  pleaseth. 
So  also  are  all  other  elect  persons,  who  are  incapable 
of  being  outwardly  called  by  the  ministry  of  the 
word." 

"  Sec.  4.  Others  not  elected,  although  they  may  be 
called  by  the  ministry  of  the  word,  and  may  have 
some  common  operations  of  the  Spirit,  yet  they 
never  truly  come  unto  Christ,  and  therefore  cannot 
be  saved  :  much  less  can  men  not  professing  the 
Christian  religion  be  saved  in  any  other  way  whatso- 
ever, be  they  ever  so  diligent  to  frame  their  lives 
according  to  the  light  of  nature,  and  the  law  of  that 
religion  they  do  profess  ;  and  to  assert  and  main- 
tain that  they  may,  is  very  pernicious,  and  to  be 
detested," 

"  Chapter  XI. — Of  Justification. 

"  Sec.  4.  God  did,  from  all  eternity,  decree  to  justify 
all  the  elect ;  and  Christ  did,  in  the  fulness  of  time, 
die  for  their  sins,  and  rise  again  for  their  justifi- 
cation :  nevertheless  they  are  not  justified,  until  the 
Holy  Spirit  doth  in  due  time  actually  apply  Christ 
unto  them." 

"  Chapter  XY\.—Of  Good  Works. 

'*  Sec.  7.  Works  done  by  unregenerate  men,  al- 
though, for  the  matter  of  them,  they  may  be  things 


38     THE   WESTMINSTER   CONFESSION   OF   FAITH 

which  God  commands,  and  of  good  use  both  to 
themselves  and  others  ;  yet,  because  they  proceed  not 
from  an  heart  purified  by  faith ;  nor  are  done  in 
a  right  manner,  according  to  the  word ;  nor  to  a 
right  end,  the  glory  of  God ;  they  are  therefore 
sinful,  and  cannot  please  God,  or  make  a  man  meet 
to  receive  grace  from  God.  And  yet  their  neglect  of 
them  is  more  sinful,  and  displeasing  unto  God." 

"  Chapter  XVII. — Of  the  Perseverance  of  the 
Saints. 

"Sec.  I.  They  whom  God  hath  accepted  in  his  Be- 
loved, effectually  called  and  sanctified  by  his  Spirit, 
can  neither  totally  nor  finally  fall  away  from  the 
state  of  grace  ;  but  shall  certainly  persevere  therein 
to  the  end,  and  be  eternally  saved." 

"  Sec.  2.  This  perseverance  of  the  saints  depends 
not  upon  their  own  free  will,  but  upon  the  immuta- 
bility of  the  decree  of  election  flowing  from  the  free 
and  unchangeable  love  of  God  the  Father  ;  upon  the 
efficacy  of  the  merit  and  intercession  of  Jesus  Christ; 
the  abiding  of  the  Spirit,  and  of  the  seed  of  God 
within  them ;  and  the  nature  of  the  covenant  of 
grace :  from  all  which  ariseth  also  the  certainty  and 
infallibility  thereof" 

The  remarkable  feature  about  all  these  passages 
is  the  extraordinary  idea  that  is  presented  of  the 
character  of  God.  According  to  them,  God  for  his 
own  glory  condemns  millions  of  millions  of  his 
own  creatures  to  everlasting  suffering.  Probably 
in  the  times  of  the  framers  of  the  Confession,  no 
one  had  any  idea  of  the  vast  numbers  who  were 
condemned  by  their  doctrines  to  eternal  perdition. 


AND   THE   THIRTY-NINE   ARTICLES  39 

It  will  be  noticed  that  none  can  be  saved  except 
those  who  believe  in  Christ,  A  difficulty  arises 
with  elect  infants,  idiots,  deaf  and  dumb,  and  others 
by  nature  incapable  of  hearing  or  comprehending 
the  gospel  of  Jesus,  or,  in  the  words  of  the  Confes- 
sion, "  of  being  outwardly  called  by  the  word  of  the 
ministry  " ;  and  this  difficulty  is  solved  in  chapter  x., 
section  3.  But  all  the  rest  of  mankind  who  have 
not  believed  in  Christ  must  perish  for  ever,  and 
special  emphasis  is  put  on  this  in  chapter  x.,  sec- 
tion 4,  for  it  is  declared  to  be  certain  that  no  one, 
however  good  he  may  be,  can  be  saved  unless  he 
professes  the  Christian  religion,  and  of  those  pro- 
fessing the  Christian  religion  only  those  that  truly 
come  to  Christ.  The  number  of  the  inhabitants  of 
the  world  at  present  is  estimated  at  1,479,729,000. 
How  many  of  these  are  there  of  whom  it  can  be 
said  that  they  truly  come  to  Christ?  There  are 
upwards  of  a  thousand  millions  who  are  men  "  not 
professing  the  Christian  religion,"  and  of  the 
395,000,000  professing  the  Christian  religion,  how 
many  of  them  have  truly  come  to  Christ  in  the 
opinion  of  the  orthodox  people  of  this  country  ? 

"  Chapter  VI. — Of  the  Fall  of  Man,  of  Sin,  and  of 
the  Punishment  thereof 

"  Sec.  I.  Our  first  parents  being  seduced  by  the 
subtilty  and  temptation  of  Satan,  sinned  in  eating 
the  forbidden  fruit.     This  their  sin  God  was  pleased, 


40     THE   WESTMINSTER   CONFESSION   OF   FAITH 

according  to  his  wise  and  holy  counsel,  to  permit, 
having  purposed  to  order  it  to  his  own  glory." 

"  Sec.  2.  By  this  sin  they  fell  from  their  original 
righteousness,  and  communion  with  God,  and  so 
became  dead  in  sin,  and  wholly  defiled  in  all  the 
faculties  and  parts  of  soul  and  body." 

"  Sec.  3.  They  being  the  root  of  all  mankind,  the 
guilt  of  this  sin  was  imputed,  and  the  same  death 
in  sin  and  corrupted  nature  conveyed  to  all  their 
posterity,  descending  from  them  by  ordinary  gener- 
ation." 

"  Sec.  4.  From  this  original  corruption,  whereby 
we  are  utterly  indisposed,  disabled,  and  made 
opposite  to  all  good,  and  wholly  inclined  to  all  evil, 
do  proceed  all  actual  transgressions." 

"  Sec.  6.  Every  sin,  both  original  and  actual,  being 
a  transgression  of  the  righteous  law  of  God,  and 
contrary  thereunto,  doth,  in  its  own  nature,  bring 
guilt  upon  the  sinner,  whereby  he  is  bound  over  to 
the  wrath  of  God,  and  curse  of  the  law,  and  so  made 
subject  to  death,  with  all  miseries  spiritual,  temporal, 
and  eternal." 

"  Chapter  XV. — 0/  Repentance  unto  Life. 

"  Sec.  4.  As  there  is  no  sin  so  small  but  it  deserves 
damnation  ;  so  there  is  no  sin  so  great,  that  it  can 
bring  damnation  upon  those  who  truly  repent." 

It  is  difficult  for  any  man  who  believes  these  state- 
ments to  take  part  in  any  transactions  with  his 
fellow-men,  public  and  private.  For  either  he  must 
suppose  that  he  is  one  of  the  elect  or  that  he  is  not. 
If  he  is  one  of  the  elect,  his  inability  to  do  good  has 
been  or  will  be  removed.  But  the  other  members 
of  the  family  or  society  or  company  or  committee 


AND  THE  THIRTY-NINE  ARTICLES  4I 

to  which  he  belongs  must  be  nearly  all,  in  the 
present  state  of  religion  according  to  his  conception 
of  it,  utterly  indisposed,  disabled,  and  made  opposite 
to  all  good  and  wholly  inclined  to  all  evil.  Do  not 
these  words,  for  instance,  apply  with  full  force  to  the 
majority,  if  not  to  all,  in  the  House  of  Lords  and 
in  the  House  of  Commons,  and  are  not  most 
Churches  throughout  the  world  largely  synagogues 
of  Satan  in  the  eyes  of  those  who  deem  themselves 
the  elect? 

"  Chapter  XX. — Of  Christian  Liberty,  and  Liberty 
of  Conscience. 

"  Sec.  2.  God  alone  is  lord  of  the  conscience,  and 
hath  left  it  free  from  the  doctrines  and  command- 
ments of  men  which  are  in  any  thing  contrary  to 
his  word,  or  beside  it,  in  matters  of  faith  or  worship. 
So  that  to  believe  such  doctrines,  or  to  obey  such 
commandments  out  of  conscience,  is  to  betray  true 
liberty  of  conscience  :  and  the  requiring  of  an  im- 
plicit faith,  and  an  absolute  and  blind  obedience,  is 
to  destroy  liberty  of  conscience,  and  reason  also." 

"  Sec.  4.  And  because  the  powers  which  God  hath 
ordained,  and  the  liberty  which  Christ  hath  pur- 
chased, are  not  intended  by  God  to  destroy,  but 
mutually  to  uphold  and  preserve  one  another ;  they 
who,  upon  pretence  of  Christian  liberty,  shall  oppose 
any  lawful  power,  or  the  lawful  exercise  of  it, 
whether  it  be  civil  or  ecclesiastical,  resist  the  ordin- 
ance of  God.  And  for  their  publishing  of  such 
opinions,  or  maintaining  of  such  practices,  as  are 
contrary  to  the  light  of  nature,  or  to  the  known 
principles  of  Christianity,  whether  concerning  faith, 
worship,  or  conversation  ;  or  to  the  power  of  godli- 


42     THE  WESTMINSTER  CONFESSION   OF  FAITH 

ness ;  or  such  erroneous  opinions  or  practices  as, 
either  in  their  own  nature,  or  in  the  manner  of 
publishing  or  maintaining  them,  are  destructive  to 
the  external  peace  and  order  which  Christ  hath 
established  in  the  church ;  they  may  lawfully  be 
called  to  account,  and  proceeded  against  by  the 
censures  of  the  church,  and  by  the  power  of  the  civil 
magistrate." 

"Chapter  XXIII.— (9/  the  Civil  Magistrate. 

"  Sec.  3.  The  civil  magistrate  may  not  assume  to 
himself  the  administration  of  the  word  and  sacra- 
ments, or  the  power  of  the  keys  of  the  kingdom  of 
heaven  :  yet  he  hath  authority,  and  it  is  his  duty,  to 
take  order,  that  unity  and  peace  be  preserved  in  the 
church,  that  the  truth  of  God  be  kept  pure  and 
entire,  that  all  blasphemies  and  heresies  be  sup- 
pressed, all  corruptions  and  abuses  in  worship  and 
discipline  prevented  or  reformed,  and  all  the  ordin- 
ances of  God  duly  settled,  administered,  and 
observed.  For  the  better  effecting  whereof,  he  hath 
power  to  call  synods,  to  be  present  at  them,  and  to 
provide  that  whatsoever  is  transacted  in  them  be 
according  to  the  mind  of  God." 

Here  we  have  a  statement  of  the  duties  and 
powers  of  the  civil  magistrate.  He  is  bound  to 
suppress  publications  contrary  to  the  light  of  nature 
or  to  the  known  principles  of  Christianity.  A  very 
wide  range  is  thus  given  him,  and  those  who  believe 
the  Confession  of  Faith  must  deem  it  right  that 
every  inquiry  which  is  in  the  opinion  of  the  magis- 
trate not  favourable  to  Christianity  should  be  treated 
as  a  crime  and  accordingly  punished.     Section  3  of 


AND   THE   THIRTY-NINE   ARTICLES  43 

chapter  xxiii.  is  still  wider.  He  has  power  to  suppress 
heresies,  innovations  in  worship,  all  attempts  at 
ritualism,  and  a  host  of  other  thoughts  and  practices, 
and  he  can  punish  Sabbath  breaking  and  dis- 
obedience to  the  other  injunctions  of  the  Mosaic 
Law. 

There  were  unquestionably  Christians  at  the  time 
when  the  Confession  of  Faith  was  framed  who 
deemed  that  magistrates  ought  not  to  have  such 
powers.  Some  of  them  had  suffered  severely  from 
the  exercise  of  these  powers,  and  mankind  has 
learned  toleration  slowly  and  principally  through 
suffering.  But  the  great  majority  were  not  inclined 
to  view  the  matter  in  this  light.  Their  turn  had 
come.  The  ordinance  of  Parliament  which  author- 
ised the  existence  of  the  Assembly  contains  these 
words  :  "  Whereas  it  hath  been  declared  and  resolved 
by  the  lords  and  commons  assembled  in  parliament, 
that  the  present  church  government  by  archbishops, 
bishops,  their  chancellors,  commissaries,  deans,  deans 
and  chapters,  archdeacons,  and  other  ecclesiastical 
officers  depending  upon  the  hierarchy,  is  evil,  and 
justly  offensive  and  burdensome  to  the  kingdom  ; 
a  great  impediment  to  reformation  and  growth  of 
religion ;  and  very  prejudicial  to  the  state  and 
government  of  this  kingdom ;  and  that  therefore 
they  are  resolved  that  the  same  shall  be  taken  away, 
and  that  such  a  government  shall  be  settled  in  the 
church   as   may   be  most  agreeable   to  God's  holy 


44     THE  WESTMINSTER  CONFESSION   OF   FAITH 

word,  and  most  apt  to  procure  and  preserve  the 
peace  of  the  church  at  home,  and  nearer  agreement 
with  the  Church  of  Scotland,  and  other  reformed 
churches  abroad  ;  and  for  the  better  effecting  thereof, 
and  for  the  vindicating  and  clearing  of  the  doctrine 
of  the  Church  of  England  from  all  false  calumnies 
and  aspersions,  it  is  thought  fit  and  necessary  to  call 
an  assembly  of  learned,  godly,  and  judicious  divines, 
to  consult  and  advise  of  such  matters  and  things, 
touching  the  premises,  as  shall  be  proposed  unto 
them  by  both  or  either  of  the  houses  of  parliament." 

The  Prelatists  had  treated  Nonconformists  harshly, 
and  now  power  was  given  to  Independent  and 
Presbyterian  magistrates  to  drive  Prelatists  from 
their  benefices,  and  to  imprison  them  or  send  them 
into  exile.  It  is  one  of  the  strange  ironies  of  history 
that  this  should  be  the  clause  in  consequence  of 
which  a  body  of  judges,  probably  not  one  of  them 
Independent  or  Presbyterian,  and  some  of  them 
most  probably  Prelatic  and  Ritualist,  in  spite  of  the 
treaty  of  union  should  deprive  one  Presbyterian 
Church  of  large  funds  because  it  united  with  another 
Presbyterian  Church. 

The  clause  in  the  Confession  says  nothing  of  the 
endowment  or  establishment  of  churches.  There 
was  a  very  good  reason  for  this.  An  individual 
of  lofty  thought  and  wide  toleration  like  Milton 
might  think  that  the  Church  would  be  better 
without    endowments    from    the    State,    but    such 


AND   THE   THIRTY-NINE   ARTICLES  45 

persons  were  exceedingly  few  and  had  no  influence. 
It  may  be  affirmed  that  all  sections  of  religionists 
had  no  objection  to  receive  endowments  from  the 
State,  and  therefore  there  was  no  need  of  saying 
anything  about  the  matter.  It  is  disputed  points 
that  make  their  appearance  in  a  creed.  This  had 
really  never  been  disputed.  Ambrose,  in  his  letter 
to  the  Emperor  Valentinian  in  reply  to  that  of 
Symmachus,  adduces  arguments  in  favour  of  volun- 
taryism such  as  might  be  used  by  the  keenest 
voluntary  of  the  present  time.  He  sees  no  objection 
to  the  State  confiscating  the  revenues  of  the  Vestal 
Virgins  and  of  the  priests,  and  points  to  the  fact 
that  Christianity  had  made  marvellous  progress 
without  the  aid  of  princes,  and  even  in  the  midst 
of  persecutions  by  the  State,  while  paganism  had 
decayed,  though  it  had  the  support  of  emperors 
and  was  dowered  with  magnificent  bequests  and 
donations  of  lands.  But  when  the  Christians  were 
offered  these  possessions  of  the  pagan  priests,  they 
did  not  refuse  them.  And  so  it  went  on  through 
the  centuries  down  to  the  times  of  the  Westminster 
Confession.  No  doubt  the  State  deprived  pagan 
priests  of  their  endowments  and  gave  them  to 
Culdees  and  Roman  Catholics.  The  State  deprived 
the  Roman  Catholics  of  their  endowments  and 
conferred  them  on  Presbyterians  in  Scotland  and 
Episcopalians  in  England.  At  the  period  of  the 
Assembly  the  State  resolved  to  deprive  all  Prelatists 


46     THE   WESTMINSTER   CONFESSION   OF  FAITH 

of  the  endowments,  and  they  did  hand  over  benefices 
and  lectureships  in  the  Universities  to  Independents 
and  Presbyterians.  It  was  the  State  which  sum- 
moned the  Westminster  Assembly.  It  was  the 
State  that  paid  the  officials  of  the  Assembly.  The 
Assembly  might,  indeed,  be  called  a  Committee 
of  Parliament.  And  thus  Independents  and  Presby- 
terians were  acknowledging  in  the  most  substantial 
way  the  right  of  Parliament  to  deal  with  the  emolu- 
ments of  churches.  It  could  not  be  expected  that 
the  Assembly  would  take  up  this  question  of 
establishment  and  endowment.  They  thought  that 
the  less  said  about  it  the  better.  Milton  denounced 
the  Assembly  in  strong  language.  "  But  while," 
he  says,  "  they  taught  compulsion  without  convince- 
ment,  which  not  long  before  they  complained  of 
as  executed  unchristianly  against  themselves,  their 
intents  are  clear  to  have  been  no  better  than  anti- 
christian,  setting  up  a  spiritual  tyranny  by  a  secular 
power,  to  advancing  of  their  own  authority  above 
the  magistrate,  whom  they  would  have  made  their 
executioner,  to  punish  church  delinquencies,  whereof 
civil  laws  have  no  cognizance."^  The  separation 
of  Church  and  State  has  almost  invariably  been 
treated  at  first  as  a  matter  of  expediency,  and  is  still 
held  by  many  as  such,  not  as  religious  doctrine. 
The  majority  Free  Church  and  some  of  the  foremost 
United  Presbyterians  saw  no  inconsistency  with 
^  History  of  Britain,  Book  III.,  introductory  portion. 


AND  THE  THIRTY-NINE  ARTICLES  47 

their  opinions  in  having  religious  education  sup- 
ported by  State  aid  and  by  rates,  and  probably 
they  do  so  still.  It  is  only  comparatively  lately 
that  the  religious  element  has  been  introduced.  It 
partly  arose  from  the  principle  adopted  by  many 
that  the  State  ought  to  endow  truth  only,  and  that 
they  alone  held  the  truth  and  alone  ought  to  be 
endowed,  as  is  fully  set  forth  in  Mr.  Gladstone's 
book  on  the  Church ;  and  partly  also  by  such  ex- 
positions of  the  Kingdom  of  Christ  as  Archbishop 
Whately  made  in  his  Essay  on  that  subject^ — from 
which  the  inference  was  drawn  that  establishment 
and  endowment  were  either  not  warranted  by  Scrip- 
ture or  were  even  contrary  to  the  spirit  of  the  New 
Testament. 

The  recognition  of  religion  by  the  State  is  a 
different  question.  Whether  the  State  should  take 
upon  it  to  proclaim  a  fast,  or  to  employ  priests  or 
ministers  on  ceremonial  occasions,  or  make  regula- 
tions in  regard  to  Sunday,  not  as  a  day  of  rest,  but 
as  a  day  of  worship — these  are  questions  which  are 
still  undecided.  But  all  these  questions  of  voluntary- 
ism, such  as  the  bestowal  of  endowments  at  one 
time  belonging  to  Roman  Catholic  and  other 
Churches  on  the  present  Church  of  England  and 
the  present  Church  of  Scotland,  are  really  modern. 
The  Westminster  Assembly  did  not  and  could  not 
take  them   up.     They  believed    that    Presbyterians 

^  London,  1841. 


48     THE   WESTMINSTER   CONFESSION   OF   FAITH 

and  Independents  were  entitled  to  get  and  take 
the  religious  endowments,  but  they  thought  it  un- 
necessary to  say  anything  about  the  matter  in  a 
Confession  or  Creed. 

"Chapter  XXI. — Of  Religious  Worship,  and  the 
Sabbath-day. 

"  Sec.  y.  As  it  is  of  the  law  of  nature,  that,  in 
general,  a  due  proportion  of  time  be  set  apart  for 
the  worship  of  God  ;  so,  in  his  word,  by  a  positive, 
moral,  and  perpetual  commandment,  binding  all 
men  in  all  ages,  he  hath  particularly  appointed 
one  day  in  seven  for  a  sabbath,  to  be  kept  holy  unto 
him  :  which,  from  the  beginning  of  the  world  to  the 
resurrection  of  Christ,  was  the  last  day  of  the  week ; 
and,  from  the  resurrection  of  Christ,  was  changed 
into  the  first  day  of  the  week,  which  in  Scripture  is 
called  the  Lord's  Day,  and  is  to  be  continued  to  the 
end  of  the  world,  as  the  Christian  Sabbath." 

"  Sec.  8.  This  sabbath  is  then  kept  holy  unto  the 
Lord,  when  men,  after  a  due  preparing  of  their  hearts, 
and  ordering  of  their  common  affairs  beforehand,  do 
not  only  observe  an  holy  rest  all  the  day  from  their 
own  works,  words,  and  thoughts  about  their  worldly 
employments  and  recreations  ;  but  also  are  taken  up 
the  whole  time  in  the  publick  and  private  exercises 
of  his  worship,  and  in  the  duties  of  necessity  and 
mercy." 

It  is  doubtful  whether  many  who  are  amongst  the 
most  devout  and  holy  of  the  worshippers  of  the 
present  day  could  agree  to  this  statement  about  the 
Sabbath,  and  theological  scholars  might  well  dispute 
the  accuracy  of  the  historical  statements. 


AND  THE  THIRTY-NINE  ARTICLES  49 

POPERY 

"Chapter  XXII. — Of  lawful  Oaths  and  Vows. 

"Sec.  7.  No  man  may  vow  to  do  any  thing  for- 
bidden in  the  word  of  God,  or  what  would  hinder  any 
duty  therein  commanded,  or  which  is  not  in  his  own 
power,  and  for  the  performance  whereof  he  hath  no 
promise  or  ability  from  God.  In  which  respects, 
Popish  monastical  vows  of  perpetual  single  life,  pro- 
fessed poverty,  and  regular  obedience,  are  so  far  from 
being  degrees  of  higher  perfection,  that  they  are 
superstitious  and  sinful  snares,  in  which  no  Christian 
may  entangle  himself" 

"  Chapter  XXV.— (9/  the  Church. 

"  Sec.  6.  There  is  no  other  head  of  the  church  but 
the  Lord  Jesus  Christ :  nor  can  the  Pope  of  Rome  in 
any  sense  be  head  thereof;  but  is  that  antichrist, 
that  man  of  sin,  and  son  of  perdition,  that  exalteth 
himself  in  the  church  against  Christ,  and  all  that  is 
called  God." 

"Chapter  XX\X.—Of  the  Lord's  Supper. 

"  Sec.  2.  In  this  sacrament  Christ  is  not  offered  up 
to  his  Father,  nor  any  real  sacrifice  made  at  all  for 
remission  of  sins  of  the  quick  or  dead ;  but  only  a 
commemoration  of  that  one  offering  up  of  himself, 
by  himself,  upon  the  cross,  once  for  all,  and  a  spiritual 
oblation  of  all  possible  praise  unto  God  for  the  same  ; 
so  that  the  Popish  sacrifice  of  the  mass,  as  they  call 
it,  is  most  abominably  injurious  to  Christ's  one  only 
sacrifice,  the  alone  propitiation  for  all  the  sins  of  the 
elect." 

Few  men  in  the  present  day  who  have  received  any 
culture  could  honestly  sign  section  6  of  chapter  xxv. 


50     THE   WESTMINSTER   CONFESSION    OF   FAITH 

Very  many  will  feel  unable  to  identify  the  Pope 
of  Rome  with  antichrist. 

"Chapter    XXXII.— (9/  the    State  of  Men    after 
Death,  and  of  the  Resurrection  of  the  Dead. 

"Sec.  I.  The  bodies  of  men  after  death  return  to 
dust,  and  see  corruption  ;  but  their  souls,  (which 
neither  die  nor  sleep,)  having  an  immortal  subsistence, 
immediately  return  to  God  who  gave  them.  The 
souls  of  the  righteous,  being  then  made  perfect  in 
holiness,  are  received  into  the  highest  heavens,  where 
they  behold  the  face  of  God  in  light  and  glory, 
waiting  for  the  full  redemption  of  their  bodies ;  and 
the  souls  of  the  wicked  are  cast  into  hell,  where  they 
remain  in  torments  and  utter  darkness,  reserved  to 
the  judgment  of  the  great  day.  Besides  these  two 
places  for  souls  separated  from  their  bodies,  the 
scripture  acknowledgeth  none." 

"  Sec.  2.  At  the  last  day,  such  as  are  found  alive 
shall  not  die,  but  be  changed  :  and  all  the  dead  shall 
be  raised  up  with  the  selfsame  bodies,  and  none  other, 
although  with  different  qualities,  which  shall  be 
united  again  to  their  souls  for  ever." 

"  Sec.  3.  The  bodies  of  the  unjust  shall,  by  the 
power  of  Christ,  be  raised  to  dishonour  ;  the  bodies 
of  the  just,  by  his  Spirit,  unto  honour,  and  be  made 
conformable  to  his  own  glorious  body." 

"  Chapter  XXXI 1 1.— Of  the  Last  fudgment. 

"  Sec.  2.  The  end  of  God's  appointing  this  day  is 
for  the  manifestation  of  the  glory  of  his  mercy  in  the 
eternal  salvation  of  the  elect,  and  of  his  justice  in  the 
damnation  of  the  reprobate,  who  are  wicked  and 
disobedient.  For  then  shall  the  righteous  go  into 
everlasting  life,  and  receive  that  fulness  of  joy  and 
refreshing  which  shall  come  from  the  presence  of  the 


AND   THE   THIRTY-NINE   ARTICLES  5 1 

Lord  ;  but  the  wicked,  who  know  not  God,  and  obey 
not  the  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ,  shall  be  cast  into 
eternal  torments,  and  be  punished  with  everlasting 
destruction  from  the  presence  of  the  Lord,  and  from 
the  glory  of  his  power." 

These  sections  deal  with  the  future  state.  They 
are  crammed  with  assertions,  about  which  Christians 
of  the  present  day  would  not  agree.  The  division  of 
man  into  soul  and  body,  the  separate  existence  of  the 
soul  and  the  locality  assigned  to  it  after  death,  the 
supposition  that  God  dwells  in  the  highest  heavens 
or  that  there  is  such  a  place  as  the  highest  heavens, 
imply  propositions  which  have  been  all  keenly  dis- 
puted, and  that  the  selfsame  bodies  will  rise  is 
regarded  by  many  as  an  absurd  assertion,  as  no  body 
is  ever  the  same,  but  undergoes  continual  change. 

But  the  awfully  solemn  question  of  future  punish- 
ments is  one  on  which  most  people  would  be  un- 
willing to  dogmatise.  And  the  words  of  Scripture 
render  definite  conclusions  impossible.  The  revela- 
tion to  the  Hebrews  makes  death  the  end  of  all 
things,  with  no  return  to  life  through  resurrection  or 
otherwise,  and  the  popular  imagination  represented 
both  body  and  soul  together  as  one  personality  going 
to  a  place  called  Sheol,  where  good  and  bad  alike 
have  together  a  shadowy  existence.  In  the  New 
Testament  arguments  can  be  found  for  the  belief  that 
the  wicked  will  be  utterly  destroyed,  that  the  good 
with  their  bodies  are  sleeping  till  the  resurrection, 


52     THE   WESTMINSTER  CONFESSION   OF  FAITH 

and  that  all  mankind  will  yet  one  day  be  restored  to 
harmony  with  the  Divine  Being,  and  enjoy  eternal 
felicity.  There  are  other  opinions  also  which  can 
find  some  support  in  Scripture.  If  it  is  possible  to 
entertain  the  Jewish  belief,  or  the  Pauline  doctrine 
in  I  Corinthians  xv.  20-28,  it  would  be  better  to  hold 
one  or  the  other,  and  to  leave  the  other  doctrine  of 
eternal  future  punishments  for  the  non-elect  com- 
pletely in  the  background  and  never  mention  it. 
But  who  can  sign  the  Confession  of  Faith,  with  its 
awful  future  and  the  ideas  of  the  Divine  Being  which 
it  suggests,  as  the  Confession  of  "  his  faith"} 


CHAPTER   II 

THE    ENGLISH    CHURCH 
THE    THIRTY-NINE    ARTICLES 

These  articles  are  much  more  vague,  and  perhaps 
more  easy  to  sign,  than  the  dogmas  of  the  Confession 
of  Faith,  but  they  contain  at  bottom  nearly  all  the 
difficulties  which  the  person  who  signs  the  Confession 
of  Faith  has  to  face. 

Article  VI 11.  is  entitled  "Of  the  Three  Creeds." 
It  is  as  follows  : — 

"The  Three  Creeds,  Nicene  Creed,  Atkanasius's 
Creed,  and  that  which  is  commonly  called  the 
Apostles'  Creed,  ought  thoroughly  to  be  received 
and  believed :  for  they  may  be  proved  by  most 
certain  warrants  of  holy  Scripture." 

Dr.  Gibson  1  remarks  in  regard  to  these  three 
Creeds  :  "  As  the  Apostles'  Creed  was  not  composed 
by  the  apostles,  and  the  Nicene  Creed  is  not  the 
Creed  of  Nicaea,  so  the  Athanasian  Creed  is  not 
the  work  of  Athanasius." 

The  first  Creed  is  as  follows : 

"  I  believe  in  God  the  Father  Almighty,  Maker  of 
heaven  and  earth  : 

"  And  in  Jesus  Christ  his  only  Son  our  Lord,  Who 
was  conceived  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  Born  of  the  Virgin 
Mary,  Suffered  under  Pontius  Pilate,  Was  crucified, 

^   The  Thirty -nine  Articles  of  the  Church  of  England^  vol.  i.,  p.  329. 
53 


54     THE  WESTMINSTER  CONFESSION   OF  FAITH 

dead,  and  buried,  He  descended  into  hell ;  the  third 
day  he  rose  again  from  the  dead,  He  ascended  into 
heaven,  and  sitteth  on  the  right  hand  of  God  the 
Father  Almighty ;  from  thence  he  shall  come  to 
judge  the  quick  and  the  dead. 

"  I  believe  in  the  Holy  Ghost ;  The  holy  Catholick 
Church ;  The  Communion  of  Saints ;  The  Forgive- 
ness of  sins ;  The  Resurrection  of  the  body.  And 
the  life  everlasting.     Amen." 

The  only  points  in  this  Creed  that  could  raise 
doubt  in  the  mind  of  a  Christian  are  : 

1.  The  word  Virgin  as  an  epithet  of  Mary,  which 
raises  the  whole  question  of  the  miraculous  birth 
of  Jesus. 

2.  The  statement  that  he  descended  into  hell. 
Hell  {Inferno)  here  means  the  place  where  the  dead 
are,  the  Sheol  of  the  Hebrews,  but  it  is  doubtful 
whether  most  of  the  New  Testament  writers  ac- 
knowledged any  such  place,  and  it  is  exceedingly 
doubtful  whether  any  such  place  exists  in  the  regions 
below  the  surface  of  the  earth,  as  the  terms  Sheol, 
Infernum,  and  Inferi  imply. 

3.  The  term  Catholick  is  apt  to  awaken  associa- 
tions which  belong  to  a  one-sided  ecclesiastical 
system  foreign  to  early  Christianity.  If  "Universal" 
was  used  instead,  the  true  meaning  of  the  word 
would  be  given  ;  or  if  "  holy "  were  substituted  in 
its  place,  no  one  could  object.  The  word  holy,  and 
not  Catholic,  was  in  the  early  form  of  the  Creed. 

There  can  scarcely  be  a  doubt  that  descendit  ad 


AND   THE   THIRTY-NINE  ARTICLES  55 

infernum,  inferna,  or  inferos,  and  catholicavi  did  not 
form  part  of  the  original  words  of  the  Creed. 

THE   SECOND    CREED— THE    NICENE 

The  Creed  is  as  follows,  as  it  appears  in  the 
English  Church  Prayer  Book  : — 

"  I  believe  in  one  God  the  Father  Almighty, 
Maker  of  heaven  and  earth,  And  of  all  things 
visible  and  invisible : 

"  And  in  one  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  the  only-begotten 
Son  of  God,  Begotten  of  His  father  before  all 
worlds,  God  of  God,  Light  of  Light,  Very  God  of 
very  God,  Begotten,  not  made,  Being  of  one  sub- 
stance with  the  Father,  By  whom  all  things  were 
made  :  Who  for  us  men,  and  for  our  salvation  came 
down  from  heaven,  And  was  incarnate  by  the  Holy 
Ghost  of  the  Virgin  Mary,  And  was  made  man, 
And  was  crucified  also  for  us  under  Pontius  Pilate. 
He  suffered  and  was  buried,  And  the  third  day 
he  rose  again  according  to  the  Scriptures,  And 
ascended  into  heaven.  And  sitteth  on  the  right  hand 
of  the  Father.  And  he  shall  come  again  with  glory 
to  judge  both  the  quick  and  the  dead :  Whose 
kingdom  shall  have  no  end. 

"  And  I  believe  in  the  Holy  Ghost,  the  Lord  and 
giver  of  life.  Who  proceedeth  from  the  Father  and 
the  Son,  Who  with  the  Father  and  the  Son  together 
is  worshipped  and  glorified,  Who  spake  by  the 
Prophets.  And  I  believe  one  Catholick  and  Apos- 
tolick  Church.  I  acknowledge  one  Baptism  for  the 
remission  of  sins.  And  I  look  for  the  Resurrection 
of  the  dead,  And  the  life  of  the  world  to  come. 
Amen." 

The  remarks  made  on  the  Doctrine  of  the  Trinity 
as  stated   in   the  Confession  of  Faith  are  to  some 


56     THE  WESTMINSTER  CONFESSION   OF  FAITH 

extent  applicable  here.  The  terms  which  do  not 
occur  in  Scripture,  and  to  which  no  meaning  can 
be  now  attached,  are  found  here  :  begotten,  sub- 
stance ;  but  no  mention  is  made  of  person  or 
Trinity.  The  facts  of  Revelation  are  given ;  the 
explanation  is  left  unattempted. 

THIRD  CREED— THE  ATHANASIAN  CREED 

"  Whosoever  will  be  saved,  before  all  things  it 
is  necessary  that  he  hold  the  Catholick  Faith. 

"  Which  Faith  except  every  one  do  keep  whole 
and  undefiled,  without  doubt  he  shall  perish  ever- 
lastingly. 

"  And  the  Catholick  Faith  is  this,  That  we  worship 
one  God  in  Trinity,  and  Trinity  in  Unity ; 

"  Neither  confounding  ^the  Persons,  nor  dividing 
the  Substance. 

"  For  there  is  one  Person  of  the  Father,  another 
of  the  Son,  and  another  of  the  Holy  Ghost. 

"  But  the  Godhead  of  the  Father,  of  the  Son,  and 
of  the  Holy  Ghost  is  all  one :  the  Glory  equal,  the 
Majesty  co-eternal. 

"  Such  as  the  Father  is,  such  is  the  Son,  and  such 
is  the  Holy  Ghost. 

"  The  Father  uncreate,  the  Son  uncreate,  and  the 
Holy  Ghost  uncreate. 

"  The  Father  incomprehensible,  the  Son  incom- 
prehensible, and  the  Holy  Ghost  incomprehensible. 

"  The  Father  eternal,  the  Son  eternal,  and  the 
▼  Holy  Ghost  eternal. 

"  And  yet  they  are  not  three  eternals,  but  one 
eternal. 

"  As  also  there  are  not  three  incomprehensibles, 
nor  three  uncreated  ;  but  one  uncreated,  and  one  in- 
comprehensible. 


AND   THE  THIRTY-NINE  ARTICLES  S7 

"So  likewise  the  Father  is  Almighty,  the  Son 
Almighty,  and  the  Holy  Ghost  Almighty. 

"  And  yet  they  are  not  three  Almighties,  but  one 
Almighty. 

"  So  the  Father  is  God,  the  Son  is  God,  and  the 
Holy  Ghost  is  God. 

"  And  yet  they  are  not  three  Gods,  but  one  God. 

"  So  likewise  the  Father  is  Lord,  the  Son  Lord, 
and  the  Holy  Ghost  Lord. 

"  And  yet  not  three  Lords,  but  one  Lord. 

"  For  like  as  we  are  compelled  by  the  Christian 
verity  to  acknowledge  every  Person  by  himself  to  be 
God  and  Lord  ; 

"  So  are  we  forbidden  by  the  Catholick  Religion 
to  say,  There  be  three  Gods,  or  three  Lords. 

"  The  Father  is  made  of  none ;  neither  created, 
nor  begotten. 

"  The  Son  is  of  the  Father  alone ;  not  made,  nor 
created,  but  begotten. 

"  The  Holy  Ghost  is  of  the  Father  and  of  the  Son ; 
neither  made,  nor  created,  nor  begotten,  but  pro- 
ceeding. 

"  So  there  is  one  Father,  not  three  Fathers  ;  one 
Son,  not  three  Sons;  one  Holy  Ghost, not  three  Holy 
Ghosts. 

"  And  in  this  Trinity  none  is  afore,  or  after  other ; 
none  is  greater,  or  less  than  another  ; 

"  But  the  whole  three  Persons  are  co-eternal  to- 
gether, and  co-equal. 

"  So  that  in  all  things,  as  is  aforesaid,  the  Unity  in 
Trinity,  and  the  Trinity  in  Unity  is  to  be  worshipped. 

"  He,  therefore,  that  will  be  saved  must  thus  think 
of  the  Trinity. 

"  Furthermore,  it  is  necessary  to  everlasting  salva- 
tion that  he  also  believe  rightly  the  Incarnation  of 
our  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

"  For    the    right    Faith    is   that   we    believe   and 


S8     THE  WESTMINSTER  CONFESSION   OF  FAITH 

confess  that  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  the  Son  of  God, 
is  God  and  Man  ; 

"  God,  of  the  Substance  of  the  Father,  begotten 
before  the  worlds ;  and  Man,  of  the  Substance  of 
his  Mother,  born  in  the  world. 

"  Perfect  God,  and  perfect  Man,  of  a  reasonable 
soul  and  human  flesh  subsisting. 

"  Equal  to  the  Father  as  touching  his  Godhead, 
and  inferior  to  the  Father  as  touching  his  Manhood. 

"  Who  although  he  be  God  and  Man,  yet  he  is  not 
two,  but  one  Christ ; 

"  One,  not  by  conversion  of  the  Godhead  into 
flesh,  but  by  taking  of  the  Manhood  into  God ; 

"  One  altogether ;  not  by  confusion  of  Substance, 
but  by  unity  of  Person. 

"  For  as  the  reasonable  soul  and  flesh  is  one  man, 
so  God  and  Man  is  one  Christ ; 

"  Who  suffered  for  our  salvation,  descended  into 
hell,  rose  again  the  third  day  from  the  dead. 

"  He  ascended  into  heaven ;  he  sitteth  on  the  right 
hand  of  the  Father,  God  Almighty,  from  whence  he 
shall  come  to  judge  the  quick  and  the  dead. 

"At  whose  coming  all  men  shall  rise  again  with 
their  bodies,  and  shall  give  account  for  their  own 
works. 

"  And  they  that  have  done  good  shall  go  into  life 
everlasting,  and  they  that  have  done  evil  into  ever- 
lasting fire. 

"  This  is  the  Catholick  Faith,  which  except  a  man 
believe  faithfully,  he  cannot  be  saved. 

"  Glory  be  to  the  Father,  and  to  the  Son,  and 
to  the  Holy  Ghost. 

"  As  it  was  in  the  beginning,  is  now,  and  ever  shall 
be  :  world  without  end.     Amen." 

The  peculiarity  of  this  creed  is  that  it  descends  to 
the  minutest  affirmations  and  negations,  and  that 


AND  THE  THIRTY-NINE  ARTICLES  59 

the  person  who  uses  it  pronounces  the  opinion  that 
whoever  does  not  believe  the  doctrine  propounded 
in  the  creed  "without  doubt  shall  perish  ever- 
lastingly." If  it  be  the  case,  as  seems  likely,  that 
parts  of  it  are  absolutely  unintelligible,  and  there- 
fore cannot  be  believed  by  anyone,  then  eternal 
destruction  is  pronounced  on  the  whole  creation. 
It  contains  nearly  every  word  which  metaphysical 
speculation  has  discarded :  persons,  substance,  be- 
gotten, proceeding,  and  a  statement  of  the  belief 
that  all  who  have  done  evil  shall  go  into  '' ever- 
lasting fire!'  Various  attempts  are  now  being  made 
to  mitigate  the  harshness  of  this  creed.  It  is  said, 
for  instance,  that  it  is  not  a  correct  translation.  But 
the  person  who  utters  before  the  Omniscient  this 
creed,  or  hymn,  as  some  curiously  think  it  to  be, 
stands  by  the  words  which  he  utters,  and  by  nothing 
else.  If  the  translation  is  wrong,  why  is  it  not 
altered  at  once?  Why  go  before  God  with  an  incorrect 
translation?  Besides,  in  a  creed  it  is  of  no  conse- 
quence whether  it  is  the  original  or  a  translation  ; 
what  is  wanted  is  that  it  should  be  an  exact  presen- 
tation of  the  thoughts  and  beliefs  of  the  speaker. 
And  if  a  creed  says  anything  which  it  ought  not 
to  say,  surely  the  error  should  be  removed  at  once, 
and  the  speaker  speak  what  he  really  means.  The 
Athanasian  Creed  is  believed  by  most  to  have 
been  composed  by  a  Galilean  priest.  Is  this  priest 
to    be    reckoned    of    higher    authority    than     the 


60     THE   WESTMINSTER   CONFESSION   OF  FAITH 

English  Church  and  all  its  Archbishops  and  Bishops? 
Cannot  the  English  Church  make  its  own  creed, 
unhampered  by  the  Galilean  priest  of  the  Middle 
Ages? 

Then  the  alterations  which  it  is  proposed  to  make 
in  the  translation  do  not  seem  to  me  to  remove 
any  difficulty.  The  most  prominent  alteration  is  in 
the  rendering  of  the  first  four  words :  "  quicumque 
vult  salvus  esse,"  which  we  are  told  should  be  trans- 
lated :  "  Whosoever  wishes  to  be  spiritually  healthy, 
here  and  now."^  '  It  is  making  no  statement  of  the 
future  so  far  at  all.'  But  what  help  is  got  from  this 
when  the  next  clause  is  :  "  which  faith  except  every 
one  do  keep  whole  and  undefiled,  without  doubt 
he  shall  perish  everlastingly,"  and  when  the  forty- 
second  clause  says :  "  This  is  the  Catholick  Faith, 
which  except  a  man  believe  faithfully,  he  cannot 
be  saved " ;  or,  as  the  apologists  would  translate 
the  Latin  words, "  he  will  not  be  able  to  be  spiritually 
healthy"?  A  kind  of  satisfaction  is  also  found  in 
the  supposition  based  upon  the  word  servaverit, 
"shall  have  kept,"  for  the  everlasting  punishment 
then  refers  only  to  those  who  are  within  the  Church. 
If  the  clause  were  fully  extended  according  to  this 
idea,  it  would  be  :  "  If  any  member  of  the  Church 
of    England   does    not   believe   out   and   out   every 

^  The  Athanasian  Creed,  by  the  Right  Rev.  A.  F.  Ingram,  D.D., 
Bishop  of  London.  The  same  subject  is  treated  by  the  Rev.  E. 
Hobson  and  by  the  Rev.  J.  Rawdon. 


AND  THE  THIRTY-NINE   ARTICLES  6l 

doctrine  laid  down  in  the  creed  to  the  end  of  his 
days,  or  lapses  into  Arianism  or  the  other  heresies 
connected  with  the  subject,  without  doubt  he  shall 
perish  everlastingly  :  but  if  he  belongs  to  no  church, 
or  to  another  church  which  has  never  accepted  the 
creed,  he  need  have  no  fear,  or  at  the  most  we  cannot 
say  what  will  become  of  him." 

The  apologies  do  not  seem  to  me  to  remove 
the  difficulties.  But  it  appears  to  me  that  the 
apologies  are  lame,  and  that  the  translation  of  the 
Prayer  Book  is  better  than  that  of  the  apologists. 
The  Latin  is  mediaeval  and  ecclesiastical  Latin,  and 
if  the  apologists  had  turned  to  any  Latin  dictionary 
they  would  have  found  words  to  this  effect  under 
salvus :  "In  eccl.,  Latin,  saved  from  sin,  saved  by 
Christ,"  with  references  to  the  Vulgate.  One  of  these 
references  is  to  Acts  xvi.  31:"  Believe  in  the  Lord 
Jesus,  and  thou  shalt  be  saved,  and  thy  house,"  "  Et 
salvus  eris  et  domus  tiia"  in  the  Vulgate,  and  a-wdrian 
<Tv  Koi  6  oXko^  crov  in  the  Greek  text.  There  is  some- 
thing approaching  absolute  certainty  that  this  would 
be  the  sense  to  which  the  Gallican  priest  would 
be  accustomed,  and  which  he  would  give  to  the  word 
salvus.  In  regard  to  the  emphasis  laid  on  servaverit, 
"  keep,"  as  indicating  that  the  person  must  have  first 
got  it  before  he  could  keep  it,  it  seems  equally  clear 
that  the  priest  had  no  thought  of  the  outside  world. 
To  him  it  would  be  absolutely  certain  that  every 
person  who  was  outside  the  Church  must  perish  for 


62     THE  WESTMINSTER   CONFESSION   OF  FAITH 

ever.  Salvation,  in  his  opinion,  was  to  be  found  only 
within  the  Roman  Catholic  Church. 

The  creed,  then,  or  hymn,  teaches  as  plainly  as 
words  can  teach  that  a  man  must  believe  the  doctrine 
of  the  Trinity  as  set  forth  in  it,  without  deviations 
and  without  any  heretical  error.  To  believe,  he 
must  understand  it ;  and  if,  therefore,  he  does  not 
understand  it,  he  will  perish  for  ever. 

Now  we  have  seen  that  philosophic  thinkers  are 
all  of  opinion  that  the  creed  cannot  be  understood — 
that  it  is  unintelligible.  And  anyone  who  has  ques- 
tioned ordinary  people  on  the  subject  must  have 
seen  that  they  are  completely  bewildered  by  the 
statements  of  the  creed,  and  if  they  are  bold  enough 
to  express  their  own  thoughts,  they  fall  unconsciously 
into  heretical  opinions  on  every  side.  The  meta- 
physical doctrine  of  the  Trinity  does  not  hold  the 
same  place  in  Scotch  Churches  as  it  does  in  the 
English.  The  consequence  is  that  an  exposition 
of  it  is  not  often  made  in  sermons.  I  have  heard 
such  expositions  only  about  four  or  five  times,  but 
on  every  occasion  the  minister,  honestly  endeavour- 
ing to  bring  the  matter  within  the  capacities  of  his 
congregation,  has  uttered  unconsciously  monstrous 
heresies.  I  have  heard  Docetism,  Sabellianism,  Mono- 
physite,  and  Monothelite  opinions  laid  before  the 
audience  as  explanations  of  the  phenomena  recorded 
in  the  New  Testament.  And  what  are  we  to  think 
of  the  outside  world  ?     Sitting  beside  Nubar  Pasha 


AND   THE  THIRTY-NINE   ARTICLES  63 

on  one  occasion,  I  discussed  with  him  the  religions 
of  the  East,  and  I  put  to  him  the  question,  "  Do  you 
think  that  the  Mohammedans  will  become  Christian?" 
"  Never,"  he  said ;  "  the  Easterns  are  not  meta- 
physical. They  are  utterly  bewildered  when  they 
hear  of  one  in  three  and  three  in  one,  and  turn  away 
from  such  dogmas."  What  comfort  can  there  be  to 
English  Church  congregations  when  they  pronounce 
before  the  Omniscient  that  a  hundred  and  sixty 
millions  of  our  fellow-beings  are  "without  doubt 
to  perish  everlastingly,"  because  they  have  no  turn 
for  metaphysics  ? 

"Article  Yl.—Ofthe  Sufficiency  of  the  Holy 
Scriptures  for  Salvation." 

It  is  as  follows  : — 

"  Holy  Scripture  containeth  all  things  necessary  to 
salvation  ;  so  that  whatsoever  is  not  read  therein, 
nor  may  be  proved  thereby,  is  not  to  be  required 
of  any  man,  that  it  should  be  believed  as  an  article 
of  the  Faith,  or  be  thought  requisite  or  necessary 
to  salvation.  In  the  name  of  the  holy  Scripture  we 
do  understand  those  canonical  Books  of  the  Old  and 
New  Testament,  of  whose  authority  was  never  any 
doubt  in  the  Church. 

Of  the  names  and  number  of  the  Canonical  Books. 


Genesis, 
Exodus, 
Leviticus, 
Numbers, 


The  First  Book  of  Samuel, 
The  Second  Book  of  Samuel, 


Deuteronomy, 
foshua, 
fudges, 
Ruth, 


64     THE  WESTMINSTER   CONFESSION   OF  FAITH 

The  First  Book  of  Kings, 
The  Second  Book  of  KingSy 
The  First  Book  of  Chronicles, 
The  Second  Book  of  Chronicles, 
The  First  Book  of  Esdras, 
The  Second  Book  of  Esdras, 
The  Book  of  Esther, 
The  Book  of  fob, 
The  Psalms, 
The  Proverbs, 
Ecclesiastes  or  Preacher, 
Cantica,  or  Songs  of  Solomon, 
Four  Prophets  the  greater. 
Twelve  Prophets  the  less. 

"  And  the  other  Books  (as  Hierome  saith)  the 
Church  doth  read  for  example  of  life  and  instruction 
of  manners ;  but  yet  doth  it  not  apply  them  to 
establish  any  doctrine ;  such  are  these  following  : 

The  Third  Book  of  Esdras, 
The  Fourth  Book  of  Esdras, 
The  Book  of  Tobias, 
The  Book  of  fudith. 
The  rest  of  the  Book  of  Esther, 
The  Book  of  Wisdom, 
fesus  the  Son  of  Sirach, 
Baruch  the  Prophet, 
The  Song  of  the  Three  Children, 
The  Story  of  Susannah, 
Of  Bel  and  the  Dragon, 
The  Prayer  of  Manasses, 
The  First  Book  of  Maccabees, 
The  Second  Book  of  Maccabees. 

"All  the  Books  of  the  New  Testament,  as  they 
are  commonly  received,  we  do  receive,  and  account 
them  Canonical." 


AND   THE   THIRTY-NINE   ARTICLES  65 

This  Article  allows  a  wide  latitude  of  opinion  in 
regard  to  the  Scriptures.  It  lays  emphasis  on  things 
necessary  for  salvation  as  being  the  special  message 
of  the  Scripture,  and  says  nothing  of  the  divine 
or  human  authorship,  or  of  its  infallibility  in  other 
matters  not  bearing  on  salvation.  Its  definition 
of  Canonical  books  is  also  wide.  They  are  described 
as  being  books  of  whose  authority  was  never  any 
doubt  in  the  Church.  It  then  gives  a  list  of  the 
Canonical  books  of  the  Old  Testament,  but  the  list 
contains  several  books  of  whose  authority  there  was 
considerable  doubt  in  the  early  Church,  and  there 
is  much  doubt  in  the  Church  of  the  present  day. 
It  also  excludes  a  number  of  books  which  were 
deemed  Canonical  in  olden  times  by  large  numbers 
of  Christians. 

There  is  no  enumeration  of  the  books  of  the  New 
Testament,  but,  practically,  the  man  who  assents 
to  the  Articles  must  regard  the  books  of  our  ordinary 
New  Testament  as  Canonical,  some  of  which  were 
rejected  from  the  Canon  by  many  Christians  in 
early  times,  and  are  rejected  by  many  Christians 
in  the  present  day. 

"Article  VI  L— (9/  the  Old  TestamenC 

It  is  as  follows  : — 

"  The  Old  Testament  is  not  contrary  to  the  New : 
for  both  in  the  Old  and  New  Testament  everlasting 
life  is  offered  to  Mankind  by  Christ,  who  is  the  only 
Mediator  between   God  and  Man,  being  both  God 


66     THE   WESTMINSTER  CONFESSION   OF  FAITH 

and  Man.  Wherefore  they  are  not  to  be  heard, 
which  feign  that  the  old  Fathers  did  look  only  for 
transitory  promises." 

Investigations  into  the  teaching  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment render  this  Article  very  doubtful.  This  will 
be  shown  by  a  summary  of  the  doctrines  of  the 
Hebrews,  which  appeared  in  the  AthencBum  in  a 
review  of  Professor  Davidson's  Theology  of  the  Old 
Testament : — 

"  Professor  Davidson  nowhere  presents  a  general 
outline  of  the  results  of  his  investigations  or  exhibits 
as  a  whole  what  we  may  call  the  creed  of  the  ancient 
Hebrews.    It  is  worth  while  drawing  attention  to  this. 

"  They  believed  that  Jehovah  was  the  One  and 
only  God  of  Israel,  at  first  in  opposition  to  the  gods 
of  other  nations,  but  finally  as  the  One  and  only 
true  God.  The  conception  of  a  Trinity  was  com- 
pletely alien  to  the  Hebrew  mind.  Some  modern 
theologians  have  discovered  traces  of  this  dogma  in 
the  Old  Testament,  but  the  discovery  is  due  to  their 
own  imagination.  Jehovah  ruled  the  world  in  every 
detail,  rewarding  the  righteous  with  prosperity  and 
punishing  the  wicked  with  adversity.  There  was 
thus  complete  justice  in  this  life.  '  Prosperity  was 
the  token  of  God's  favour,  and  adversity  of  His 
displeasure.'  '  With  the  man  who  doeth  well,  it  is 
well ;  with  the  sinner  it  is  ill.'  '  God  alone  forgives 
sin  and  covers  it'  '  The  motives  are  drawn  from 
His  own  nature  and  the  initiative  is  His.'     The  law 


AND   THE   THIRTY-NINE   ARTICLES  6^ 

indeed  ordained  a  sacrifice  as  an  atonement  for  sin, 
but  '  the  principle  of  atonement  by  the  sacrifice  must 
remain  obscure.'  The  sacrifice  was  enjoined  only  for 
sins  of  inadvertency.  '  There  does  not  seem  evidence 
that  they  awakened  the  wrath  of  God.'  And  there- 
fore the  sacrifice  was  neither  expiatory  nor  vicarious. 
It  seems  '  of  the  nature  of  a  gift  to  God.'  When  men 
died,  they  passed  into  utter  forgetfulness.  '  To  the 
Israelite  death  was  truly  death  ;  and  the  dead  were 
cut  off  from  fellowship  with  the  living,  whether  man 
or  God.'  The  popular  imagination  or  feeling  could 
not  entertain  the  idea  that  the  dead  ceased  to  exist, 
and  so  it  placed  them  in  a  region  called  Sheol, 
where  they  had  a  mere  shadowy  existence.  'All 
that  belongs  to  life  ceases  except  existence.'  The 
good  and  the  evil  went  to  Sheol.  There  was 
no  heaven  and  no  hell  for  the  Hebrew.  Justice 
had  been  done  to  all  during  life,  and  there  was  no 
need  for  retribution  of  any  kind.  In  the  later  periods 
of  the  Jewish  history  recorded  in  the  Hebrew  scrip- 
tures, when  the  idea  of  the  individual  held  sway, 
some  of  the  best  men  had  hopes  of  some  kind  of 
a  future  life  and  of  a  great  Messianic  kingdom  in 
which  they  would  have  a  share,  but  even  these  never 
dreamt  of  a  heaven  as  a  place  of  bliss. 

" '  The  place  of  Israel  glorified  and  of  God  present 
is,  of  course,  in  all  the  Old  Testament  writers,  the 
earth.  God  descends  ;  His  tabernacle  is  among  men ; 
men  are  not  translated  into  heaven.' " 


68     THE  WESTMINSTER   CONFESSION   OF   FAITH 

Many  people  would  prefer  the  creed  of  the  Hebrews 
to  the  creed  often  attributed  to  the  New  Testa- 
ment. They  would  rather  that  there  should  be  no 
heaven  and  no  hell,  than  that  thousands  of  millions 
of  their  fellow-men  should  be  sent  to  everlasting 
fire.  They  would  prefer  also  to  believe  that  God 
has  the  power  to  forgive  sins  without  any  impulse 
from  without,  and  that  he  requires  no  expiation 
to  stimulate  his  mercy.  The  New  Testament  doc- 
trines as  expounded  by  many  are  not  evolutions  of 
the  Hebrew  creed,  but  additions  and  contradictions 
to  it. 

"  Article  IX. — Of  Original  or  Birth-sin. 

"  Original  Sin  standeth  not  in  the  following  of 
Admn,  (as  the  Pelagians  do  vainly  talk  :)  but  it  is  the 
fault  and  corruption  of  the  Nature  of  every  man,  that 
naturally  is  ingendered  of  the  offspring  of  Adam ; 
whereby  man  is  very  far  gone  from  original  righteous- 
ness, and  is  of  his  own  nature  inclined  to  evil,  so  that 
the  flesh  lusteth  always  contrary  to  the  spirit ;  and 
therefore  in  every  person  born  into  this  world,  it 
deserveth  God's  wrath  and  damnation." 

"  Article  X.—Of  Free-  Will. 

"  The  condition  of  Man  after  the  fall  of  Adam  is 
such,  that  he  cannot  turn  and  prepare  himself,  by  his 
own  natural  strength  and  good  works,  to  faith,  and 
calling  upon  God  :  Wherefore  we  have  no  power  to 
do  good  works  pleasant  and  acceptable  to  God,  with- 
out the  grace  of  God  by  Christ  preventing  us,  that  we 
may  have  a  good  will,  and  working  with  us,  when  we 
have  that  good  will." 


AND  THE  THIRTY-NINE  ARTICLES  69 

"Article  XIII. — Of  Works  before  Justification. 

"  Works  done  before  the  grace  of  Christ,  and  the 
Inspiration  of  his  Spirit,  are  not  pleasant  to  God, 
forasmuch  as  they  spring  not  of  faith  in  Jesus  Christ, 
neither  do  they  make  men  meet  to  receive  grace,  or 
(as  the  School-authors  say)  deserve  grace  of  congruity : 
yea  rather,  for  that  they  are  not  done  as  God  hath 
willed  and  commanded  them  to  be  done,  we  doubt 
not  but  they  have  the  nature  of  sin." 

The  doctrine  in  these  Articles  is  not  expressed  so 
definitely  and  in  such  detail  as  in  the  Confession  of 
Faith,  but  it  is  practically  the  same.  All  men  are  by 
their  connexion  with  Adam  incapable  of  doing  good. 
They  therefore  by  nature  deserve  God's  wrath  and 
damnation.  But  the  Article  is  milder  in  this  that  it 
does  not  say  what  is  meant  by  God's  wrath  and 
damnation.  Man  in  this  natural  state  is  unable  to 
do  good  works,  and  all  his  works  done  before  he  is 
converted  to  Christ  have  the  nature  of  sin.  Only 
works  that  spring  of  faith  in  Jesus  Christ  are  good. 
This  statement  is  more  fully  set  forth  in  Articles 
xvii,  and  xviii.,  but  the  Articles  omit  all  mention  of 
predestination  to  damnation. 

"  Article  y^VW.— Of  Predestination  and  Election. 

"  Predestination  to  Life  is  the  everlasting  purpose 
of  God,  whereby  (before  the  foundations  of  the  world 
were  laid)  he  hath  constantly  decreed  by  his  counsel 
secret  to  us,  to  deliver  from  curse  and  damnation 
those  whom  he  hath  chosen  in  Christ  out  of  mankind, 
and  to  bring  them  by  Christ  to  everlasting  salvation, 
as  vessels  made  to  honour." 


70     THE  WESTMINSTER  CONFESSION   OF  FAITH 

"Article  XVIII. — Of  obtaining  eternal  Salvation 
only  by  the  Name  of  Christ. 

"  They  also  are  to  be  had  accursed  that  presume  to 
say,  That  every  man  shall  be  saved  by  the  Law  or 
Sect  which  he  professeth,  so  that  he  be  diligent  to 
frame  his  life  according  to  that  Law,  and  the  light  of 
Nature.  For  holy  Scripture  doth  set  out  unto  us  only 
the  Name  of  Jesus  Christ,  whereby  men  must  be 
saved." 

"  Article  XX. — Of  the  Authority  of  the  Church. 

"  The  Church  hath  power  to  decree  Rites  or  Cere- 
monies, and  authority  in  Controversies  of  Faith : 
And  yet  it  is  not  lawful  for  the  Church  to  ordain  any 
thing  that  is  contrary  to  God's  Word  written,  neither 
may  it  so  expound  one  place  of  Scripture,  that  it  be 
repugnant  to  another.  Wherefore,  although  the 
Church  be  a  witness  and  a  keeper  of  holy  Writ,  yet, 
as  it  ought  not  to  decree  any  thing  against  the  same, 
so  besides  the  same  ought  it  not  to  enforce  any  thing 
to  be  believed  for  necessity  of  Salvation." 

"Article  XXI.— Of  the  Authority  of  General 
Councils. 

"  General  Councils  may  not  be  gathered  together 
without  the  commandment  and  will  of  Princes.  And 
when  they  be  gathered  together,  (forasmuch  as  they 
be  an  assembly  of  men,  whereof  all  be  not  governed 
with  the  Spirit  and  Word  of  God,)  they  may  err,  and 
sometimes  have  erred,  even  in  things  pertaining  unto 
God.  Wherefore  things  ordained  by  them  as  neces- 
sary to  Salvation  have  neither  strength  nor  authority, 
unless  it  may  be  declared  that  they  be  taken  out  of 
holy  Scripture." 


AND  THE  THIRTY-NINE  ARTICLES  7 1 

"Article  XXII. — Of  Purgatory. 
"The  Romish  Doctrine  concerning  Purgatory, 
Pardons,  Worshipping  and  Adoration,  as  well  of 
Images  as  of  Reliques,  and  also  invocation  of  Saints, 
is  a  fond  thing  vainly  invented,  and  grounded  upon 
no  warranty  of  Scripture,  but  rather  repugnant  to  the 
Word  of  God." 

"  Article  XXV. — Of  the  Sacraments. 

"  There  are  two  Sacraments  ordained  of  Christ  our 
Lord  in  the  Gospel,  that  is  to  say,  Baptism,  and  the 
Supper  of  the  Lord. 

"  Those  five  commonly  called  Sacraments,  that  is 
to  say,  Confirmation,  Penance,  Orders,  Matrimony, 
and  extreme  Unction,  are  not  to  be  counted  for 
Sacraments  of  the  Gospel,  being  such  as  have  grown 
partly  of  the  corrupt  following  of  the  Apostles, 
partly  are  states  of  life  allowed  in  the  Scriptures  ;  but 
yet  have  not  like  nature  of  Sacraments  with  Baptism, 
and  the  Lord's  Supper,  for  that  they  have  not  any 
visible  sign  or  ceremony  ordained  of  God. 

"  The  Sacraments  were  not  ordained  of  Christ  to 
be  gazed  upon,  or  to  be  carried  about,  but  that  we 
should  duly  use  them.  And  in  such  only  as  worthily 
receive  the  same  they  have  a  wholesome  effect  or 
operation  :  but  they  that  receive  them  unworthily 
purchase  to  themselves  damnation,  as  Saint  Paul 
saith." 

"  Article  XXVIII.— (9/  t/ie  Lord's  Supper. 

"  Transubstantiation  (or  the  change  of  the  sub- 
stance of  Bread  and  Wine)  in  the  Supper  of  the 
Lord,  cannot  be  proved  by  holy  Writ ;  but  it  is  re- 
pugnant to  the  plain  words  of  Scripture,  overthroweth 
the  nature  of  a  Sacrament,  and  hath  given  occasion 
to  many  superstitions. 

"  The  Body  of  Christ  is  given,  taken,  and  eaten,  in 


72     THE  WESTMINSTER   CONFESSION   OF  FAITH 

the  Supper,  only  after  an  heavenly  and  spiritual 
manner.  And  the  mean  whereby  the  Body  of  Christ 
is  received  and  eaten  in  the  Supper  is  Faith. 

"  The  Sacrament  of  the  Lord's  Supper  was  not  by 
Christ's  ordinance  reserved,  carried  about,  lifted  up,  or 
worshipped." 

"Article  XXX.— Of  both  kinds. 

"  The  Cup  of  the  Lord  is  not  to  be  denied  to  the 
Lay-people :  for  both  the  parts  of  the  Lord's  Sacra- 
ment, by  Christ's  ordinance  and  commandment, 
ought  to  be  ministered  to  all  Christian  men  alike." 

"Article   XXXI.— 0/  the  one  Oblation  of  Christ 
finished  upon  the  Cross. 

"  The  Offering  of  Christ  once  made  is  that  perfect 
redemption,  propitiation,  and  satisfaction,  for  all  the 
sins  of  the  whole  world,  both  original  and  actual ; 
and  there  is  none  other  satisfaction  for  sin,  but  that 
alone.  Wherefore  the  sacrifice  of  Masses,  in  the 
which  it  was  commonly  said,  that  the  Priest  did  offer 
Christ  for  the  quick  and  the  dead,  to  have  remission 
of  pain  or  guilt,  were  blasphemous  fables,  and  dan- 
gerous deceits." 

"  Article  XXXlV.—Of  the  Traditions  of  the 
Church. 

"  Every  particular  or  national  Church  hath  authority 
to  ordain,  change,  and  abolish  ceremonies  or  rites  of 
the  Church  ordained  only  by  man's  authority,  so  that 
all  things  be  done  to  edifying." 

All  these  Articles  have  reference  to  the  doctrines 
and  practices  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church.  Every 
one  who  assents  to  them  must  believe  that  the  Scrip- 


AND   THE   THIRTY-NINE  ARTICLES  73 

tures  contain  everything  that  is  necessary  for  salva- 
tion, and  that  if  any  institution  or  Church  decrees 
anything  over  and  above  what  is  in  Scripture,  such 
decree  is  to  be  disregarded.  Only  if  it  is  in  Scrip- 
ture is  it  to  have  authority. 

The  person  who  assents  to  Article  xxii.  rejects  the 
doctrine  of  Purgatory  and  Pardons,  and  agrees  to 
take  no  part  in  the  worshipping  and  adoration  of 
Images  and  Reliques  and  the  Invocation  of  Saints. 

The  person  who  assents  to  Articles  xxv.  and  xxviii. 
pledges  himself  not  to  exhibit  the  wine  and  the 
bread  of  the  Lord's  Supper  to  be  gazed  on,  and  not 
to  carry  them  about  in  processions  or  otherwise. 

The  person  who  signs  Articles  xxx.  and  xxxi.  con- 
demns Roman  masses  and  the  Romish  practice  of 
denying  the  cup  to  the  laity. 

The  person  who  signs  Article  xxxiv.  claims  for  his 
Church  full  power  to  deal  with  all  rites  ordained  only 
by  man's  authority. 

All  these  Articles  are  Protestant  to  the  core. 

"  Article  XXXVU.—O/  the  Civil  Magistrates. 

"  The  King's  Majesty  hath  the  chief  power  in  this 
Realm  of  England,  and  other  his  Dominions,  unto 
whom  the  chief  Government  of  all  Estates  of  this 
Realm,  whether  they  be  Ecclesiastical  or  Civil,  in  all 
causes  doth  appertain,  and  is  not,  nor  ought  to  be, 
subject  to  any  foreign  Jurisdiction. 

"  The  Bishop  of  Rome  hath  no  jurisdiction  in  this 
Realm  of  England." 


74     THE  WESTMINSTER  CONFESSION   OF  FAITH 

This  Article  places  supreme  power  in  Church  and 
State  in  the  hands  of  the  King,  and  particularly 
rejects  all  exercise  of  power  by  the  Pope  within  the 
King's  realms. 


CHAPTER  III 

LEGAL  ASPECTS   OF  SUBSCRIPTION 
TO   THE   CREEDS 

Sec.  I.— SCOTCH  CHURCH 
The  law  in  regard   to  the  Confession  of  Faith  is 
contained  in  an  Act  of  ParHament  of  1693  : — ^ 

"  2.  Act  for  Settling  the  Quiet  and  Peace  of  the 
Church  (Act  1693,  c.  22). 

"  Our  sovereign  lord  and  lady,  the  king  and  queen's 
majesties,  with  advice  and  consent  of  the  Estates  of 
Parliament,  ratifie,  approve,  and  perpetually  confirm 
the  fifth  Act  of  the  second  session  of  this  current 
Parliament,  intituled,  Act  ratifying  the  Confession  of 
Faith,  and  settling  Presbyterian  Church  government, 
in  the  whole  heads,  articles,  and  clauses  thereof ;  and 
do  further  statute  and  ordain,  that  no  person  be 
admitted  or  continued  for  hereafter  to  be  a  minister 
or  preacher  within  this  Church,  unless  that  he,  having 
first  taken  and  subscribed  the  oath  of  allegiance,  and 
subscribed  the  assurance  in  manner  appointed  by 
another  Act  of  this  present  session  of  Parliament 
made  thereanent,  do  also  subscribe  the  Confession  of 
Faith,  ratified  in  the  foresaid  fifth  Act  of  the  second 
session  of  this  Parliament,  declaring  the  same  to  be 
the  confession  of  his  faith,  and  that  he  owns  the 
doctrine  therein  contained  to  be  the  true  doctrine 

^  Innes,  Law  of  Creeds  in  Scotland,  pp.  172,  173. 
75 


76     THE   WESTMINSTER   CONFESSION   OF   FAITH 

which  he  will  constantly  adhere  to  ;  as  likewise,  that 
he  owns  and  acknowledges  Presbyterian  Church 
government,  as  settled  by  the  foresaid  fifth  Act  of  the 
second  session  of  this  Parliament,  to  be  the  only 
government  of  this  Church,  and  that  he  will  submit 
thereto,  and  concur  therewith,  and  never  endeavour, 
directly  or  indirectly,  the  prejudice  or  subversion 
thereof  And  their  majesties,  with  advice  and  con- 
sent foresaid,  statute  and  ordain  that  uniformity  of 
worship,  and  of  the  administration  of  all  public 
ordinances  within  this  Church  be  observed  by  all  the 
said  ministers  and  preachers,  as  the  same  are  at 
present  performed  and  allowed  therein,  or  shall  be 
hereafter  declared  by  the  authority  of  the  same,  and 
that  no  minister  or  preacher  be  admitted  or  continued 
for  hereafter,  unless  that  he  subscribe  to  observe,  and 
do  actually  observe,  the  aforesaid  uniformity." 

In  harmony  with  this  Act  the  General  Assembly  of 
the  Church,  in  1694,  prepared  a  formula  to  be  sub- 
scribed by  ministers  and  probationers.  It  was  as 
follows.  I  quote  it  from  "  Report  of  the  Scottish 
Sub-Committee  on  Creeds,  and  Formulas  to  the 
General  Presbyterian  Council  to  be  held  at  Philadel- 
phia in  1880,"  p.  6: — 

"I  ...  do  sincerely  own  and  declare  the  above 
Confession  of  Faith,  approven  by  former  General 
Assemblies  of  this  Church,  and  ratified  by  law  in  the 
year  1690,  to  be  the  confession  of  my  faith,  and  that 
I  own  the  doctrine  therein  contained  to  be  the  true 
doctrine  which  I  will  constantly  adhere  to.  As  like- 
wise that  I  own  and  acknowledge  Presbyterian  Church 
Government  of  this  Church,  now  settled  by  law,  by 
Kirk-sessions,  Presbyteries,  Provincial  Synods,  and 
General  Assemblies  to  be  the  only  Government  of 


AND   THE   THIRTY-NINE  ARTICLES  77 

this  Church,  and  that  I  will  submit  thereto,  concur 
therewith,  and  never  endeavour  directly  nor  in- 
directly the  prejudice  or  subversion  thereof,  and  that 
I  shall  observe  uniformity  of  worship,  and  of  the  ad- 
ministration of  all  public  ordinances  within  this 
Church  as  the  same  are  at  present  performed  and 
allowed." 

In  17 II  the  Assembly  adopted  a  stronger  form 
of  subscription  : — 

"  In  171 1,"  the  Report  goes  on  to  say,  "(when  the 
Church  became  seriously  alarmed  about  designs  said 
to  be  entertained  for  the  subversion  of  her  constitu- 
tion) the  General  Assembly  appointed  the  following 
somewhat  stricter  formula  to  be  signed  by  all  proba- 
tioners when  licensed,  and  ministers  when  ordained 
or  admitted  : — 

'"  I  ...  do  hereby  declare  that  I  do  sincerely  own 
and  believe  the  whole  doctrine  contained  in  the  Con- 
fession of  Faith,  approven  by  the  General  Assemblies 
of  this  National  Church,  and  ratified  by  law  in  the 
year  1690,  and  frequently  confirmed  by  diverse  Acts 
of  Parliament  since  that  time,  to  be  the  truths  of 
God,  and  I  do  own  the  same  as  the  confession  of  my 
faith.  As  likewise,  I  do  own  the  purity  of  worship 
presently  authorised  and  practised  in  this  Church, 
and  also  the  Presbyterian  Government  and  discipline 
now  so  happily  established  therein,  which  doctrine, 
worship,  and  Church  Government,  I  am  persuaded, 
are  founded  on  the  Word  of  God,  and  agreeable 
thereto :  And  I  promise  that,  through  the  grace  of 
God,  I  shall  firmly  and  constantly  adhere  to  the  same, 
and,  to  the  utmost  of  my  power,  shall  in  my  station 
assert,  maintain,  and  defend  the  said  doctrine,  wor- 
ship, discipline,  and  Government  of  this  Church  by 
Kirk-sessions,  Presbyteries,  Provincial  Synods,  and 


78     THE   WESTMINSTER   CONFESSION   OF  FAITH 

General  Assemblies  ;  and  that  I  shall,  in  my  practice, 
conform  myself  to  the  said  worship,  and  submit  to  the 
said  discipline  and  Government,  and  never  endeavour, 
directly  nor  indirectly,  the  prejudice  or  subversion  of 
the  same ;  and  I  promise  that  I  shall  follow  no  divi- 
sive course  from  the  present  establishment  in  this 
Church :  Renouncing  all  doctrines,  tenets,  and 
opinions  whatsoever  contrary  to  or  inconsistent  with 
the  said  doctrine,  worship,  discipline,  or  Government 
of  this  Church.'"! 

In  1889  the  Assembly  returned  to  the  Formula  of 
1693,  with  a  few  verbal  alterations,  which  do  not  in 
any  way  affect  the  meaning.    The  Formula  which 

^  Satisfactory  answers  must  also  be  given  to  the  following  amongst 
other  questions : — 

{a)  On  the  part  of  everyone  ordained  or  admitted  a  minister. 

"I.  Do  you  believe  the  Scriptures  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments 
to  be  the  Word  of  God,  and  the  only  rule  of  faith  and  manners  ? 

"II.  Do  you  sincerely  own  and  believe  the  whole  doctrine  con- 
tained in  the  Confession  of  Faith,  approven  by  the  General  Assemblies 
of  this  Church,  and  ratified  by  law  in  the  year  1690,  to  be  founded 
upon  the  Word  of  God,  and  do  you  acknowledge  the  same  as  the  con- 
fession of  your  faith ;  and  will  you  firmly  and  constantly  adhere  thereto, 
and  to  the  utmost  of  your  power  assert,  maintain  and  defend  the  same, 
and  the  purity  of  worship  as  presently  practised  in  this  national 
Church,"  etc.  ? 

"  III.  Do  you  disown  all  Popish,  Arian,  Socinian,  Arminian, 
Bourignian,  and  other  doctrines,  tenets,  and  opinions  contrary  to  and 
inconsistent  with  the  aforesaid  Confession  of  Faith  ?  " 

(d)  On  the  part  of  every  probationer  licensed  to  preach  : — 

*'  I.  Do  you  believe  the  Scriptures  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments 
to  be  the  Word  of  God,  and  the  only  rule  of  faith  and  manners  ? 

"II.  Do  you  sincerely  own  and  believe  the  whole  doctrine  of  the 
Confession  of  Faith,  approven  by  the  General  Assemblies  of  this  National 
Church,  and  ratified  by  law  in  the  year  1690,  and  frequently  confirmed 
by  divers  Acts  of  Parliament  since  that  time,  to  be  the  truths  of  God 
contained  in  the  Scriptures  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments,  and  do 
you  own  the  whole  doctrine  therein  contained  as  the  confession  of  your 
faith?" 


AND  THE  THIRTY-NINE  ARTICLES  79 

all   ministers   and   probationers   have  to  sign  is  as 

follows  : — 1 

"  I  declare  the  Confession  of  Faith,  approven  by 
former  General  Assemblies  of  this  Church,  and  rati- 
fied by  law  in  the  year  1690,  to  be  the  confession  of 
my  faith,  and  I  own  the  doctrine  therein  contained  to 
be  the  true  doctrine,  which  I  will  constantly  adhere 
to.  As  likewise  I  own  and  acknowledge  Presbyterian 
Church  government,  as  now  and  for  long  time  settled 
by  law,  to  be  the  only  government  of  this  Church, 
and  I  will  submit  thereto  and  concur  therewith,  and 
never  endeavour,  directly  or  indirectly,  the  prejudice 
or  subversion  thereof  As  also  I  will  observe  that 
uniformity  of  worship  and  of  the  administration  of 
all  public  ordinances  in  this  Church,  as  the  same  are 
at  present  performed  and  allowed,  or  shall  be  here- 
after declared  by  the  authority  of  the  same." 

The  Assembly  of  1889  also  altered  the  questions 
which  are  put  to  ministers  before  their  ordination, 
but  the  alterations  were  consistent  with  the  complete 
fulfilment  of  the  obligations  laid  down  in  the  Act  of 
1693.  Question  2  is,  "  Do  you  declare  the  Confession 
of  Faith  of  this  Church  to  be  the  confession  of  your 
faith  ?  " 

A  resolution  carried  in  the  Assembly  of  1903  made 
a  serious  alteration  in  the  minister's  attitude  to  the 
Confession  of  Faith.   The  resolution  is  as  follows  : — 2 

"  Finding  that  ambiguity  exists  as  to  the  authority 
of  the  Confession  of  Faith,  to  which  all  office-bearers 

^  The  Principal  Acts  of  the  General  Assembly  of  the  Church  of 
Scotland,  convened  at  Edinburgh,  May  23,  1889.  Blackwood,  1889, 
p.  34.  ^  Principal  Acts  of  General  Assembly,  etc.,  1901,  p.  73. 


80     THE  WESTMINSTER   CONFESSION   OF  FAITH 

in  the  Church  are  required  to  subscribe  according  to 
the  Formula  prescribed  by  Act  of  Parliament,  1693, 
the  General  Assembly,  considering  that  the  said 
Confession  is  based  upon  Holy  Scripture,  and  having 
specially  in  view  Chapter  i.  sections  9,  10,  Chapter  xx. 
section  2,  and  also  Chapter  xxxi,  section  4,  wherein 
it  is  expressly  set  forth,  '  That  God  alone  is  the  Lord 
of  the  Conscience,  and  hath  left  it  free  from  the 
doctrines  and  commandments  of  men  which  are  in 
anything  contrary  to  His  Word,  or  beside  it,  in 
matters  of  Faith  and  Worship ' ;  *  That  the  Supreme 
Judge  by  which  all  controversies  of  Religion  are  to 
be  determined,  and  all  decrees  of  Councils,  opinions 
of  ancient  writers,  doctrines  of  men,  and  private 
spirits,  are  to  be  examined,  and  in  whose  sentences 
we  are  to  rest,  can  be  no  other  but  the  Holy  Spirit 
speaking  in  the  Scripture,'  hereby  declare  that  the 
Confession  of  Faith  is  to  be  regarded  as  an  infallible 
rule  of  Faith  and  Worship  only  in  so  far  as  it 
accords  with  Holy  Scripture  interpreted  by  the  Holy 
Spirit." 

The  decisions  of  the  Law  Courts  during  the  Dis- 
ruption period,  and  the  opinions  expressed  by  the 
judges  in  the  late  case,  are  to  the  effect  that  the 
Church  of  Scotland  has  no  right  to  alter  the  Act 
of  1693,  and  the  only  way  in  which  a  change  can  be 
introduced  is  by  persuading  Parliament  to  amend  or 
abrogate  the  Act  of  1693.  It  follows  from  this  that 
the  action  of  the  Assembly  of  1903  is  null  and  void, 
and  that  no  minister  is  entitled  to  stipend,  manse,  or 
glebe  who  does  not  subscribe  to  the  Confession  of 
Faith  as  the  confession  of  his  own  faith.  It  was  also 
clearly  brought  out  in  the  late  case  that  he  must  take 


AND   THE   THIRTY-NINE  ARTICLES  8 1 

the  words  of  the  Confession  in  their  ordinary  sense, 
and  not  with  any  reserve  or  unexpressed  explana- 
tion of  the  terms  satisfactory  only  to  himself.  The 
question  then  arises,  Is  it  sufficient  for  the  minister 
to  subscribe  the  Confession  of  Faith  as  his  own  faith 
whether  he  really  believes  it  or  not  ?  Is  he  entitled 
to  take  the  stipend,  manse,  and  glebe,  or  to  retain 
them,  if  he  deviates  in  his  faith  in  the  slightest  degree 
from  the  doctrines  of  the  Confession  of  Faith?  Is 
not  everyone,  for  instance,  who  does  not  believe  in  the 
creation  of  the  world  in  six  days  or  in  the  existence 
of  an  absolutely  pure  Hebrew  text  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment and  an  absolutely  pure  Greek  text  of  the  New, 
or  in  the  Pope  as  Antichrist,  bound  to  resign  stipend, 
manse,  and  glebe  ?  Other  legal  questions  arise.  Is 
a  heritor  bound  to  contribute  to  the  stipend  of  a 
minister  and  to  providing  a  manse  and  glebe,  or  to 
repairing  a  manse  for  a  minister  who  he  knows  does 
not  believe  the  entire  Confession  of  Faith,  or  is  it 
not  his  duty  to  refuse  these  contributions  to  one 
who  is  not  legally  entitled  to  them  ?  Then,  again, 
is  the  Church  acting  legally  in  being  a  party  to 
illegal  acquisitions  of  stipends,  manses,  and  glebes 
by  ordinary  ministers  who  are  known  not  to  believe 
the  entire  Confession,  and  who  would  state  at  once 
that  they  do  not  believe  the  entire  Confession  of 
Faith  if  the  question  were  put  to  them  explicitly? 
There  seems  also  uncertainty  as  to  the  mode  of 
legal  procedure.     The  law  is  that  only  the  man  who 

G 


82     THE   WESTMINSTER   CONFESSION   OF  FAITH 

believes  every  word  of  the  Confession  of  Faith  as 
his  own  faith  is  entitled  to  stipend,  manse,  and 
glebe.  Hundreds  have  obtained  these  pecuniary 
advantages  who  do  not  believe  portions  of  the 
Confession.  They  are  in  illegal  possession  of  them. 
Who  is  to  punish  them  for  thus  breaking  the  law? 
Or  can  they  do  it  with  impunity?  Or  is  the 
Government  bound  to  prosecute  all  who  do  not 
believe  the  entire  Confession,  confiscate  the  property, 
and  apply  it  to  such  uses  as  may  seem  good  to 
Parliament?  And  is  the  minority  who  believe  the 
whole  Confession,  if  such  a  minority  exists,  entitled 
to  take  possession  of  all  the  moneys  which  have 
been  bequeathed  or  gifted  to  the  Church  of  Scot- 
land ?  These  and  similar  questions  are  for  the 
lawyers  and  civil  courts  to  decide ;  but  surely  there 
ought  to  be  some  clear  exposition  of  the  law  in  all 
these  matters. 

Sec.  II.— church  OF  ENGLAND. 

The  Church  of  Scotland  has  been  generally  in- 
clined to  maintain  that  it  ought  to  settle  its  own 
creed  and  arrange  its  own  religious  services.  It  has 
consequently  been  very  unwilling  to  call  in  the  aid  of 
Parliament  in  these  matters  and  so  the  Act  of  1693 
has  remained  unaltered,  and  by  the  Act  of  Security, 
1707,  it  is  provided  and  declared  "that  the  foresaid 
true  Protestant  religion  contained  in  the  above- 
mentioned  Confession  of  Faith  .  .  .  shall  remain  and 


AND  THE   THIRTY-NINE   ARTICLES  83 

continue  unalterable."  The  Church  of  England,  on 
the  other  hand,  has  not  striven  for  this  independence, 
but  holds  the  belief  expressed  in  the  Articles  that 
the  King  is  head  of  the  Church,  and  has  the  chief 
power  in  all  causes,  whether  ecclesiastical  or  civil. 
It  is  to  Parliament  or  other  civil  judicatures,  there- 
fore, that  the  Church  of  England  can  go  for  settle- 
ment of  ecclesiastical  matters,  and  frequent  recourse 
has  been  had  to  Parliament  from  the  earliest  times 
down  to  the  present.  From  early  times  members  of 
the  English  Church  have  urged  that  there  should  be 
some  laxity  in  the  terms  of  subscription,  and  the 
matter  was  last  settled  by  an  Act  of  Parliament 
passed  in  1865,  which  ordained  the  following  form  of 
subscription  for  persons  admitted  to  any  benefice  : — 

"I do  solemnly  make  the  following  De- 
claration :  I  assent  to  the  Thirty-nine  Articles  of 
Religion,  and  to  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  and  of 
the  Ordering  of  Bishops,  Priests,  and  Deacons.  I 
believe  the  doctrine  of  the  Church  of  England,  as 
therein  set  forth,  to  be  agreeable  to  the  Word  of 
God  ;  and  in  Public  Prayer  and  Administration  of 
the  Sacraments  I  will  use  the  form  in  the  said  Book 
prescribed,  and  none  other,  except  so  far  as  shall  be 
ordered  by  lawful  authority." 

It  is  easier  for  a  priest  of  the  Church  of  England 
to  subscribe  this,  as  far  as  doctrine  is  concerned,  than 
it  is  for  a  minister  of  the  Church  of  Scotland  to  sign 
the  Confession.  The  minister  of  the  Church  of  Scot- 
land is  bound  to  every  word  of  the  Confession,  and 


84     THE  WESTMINSTER   CONFESSION   OF  FAITH 

the  Confession  contains  a  much  larger  number  of 
details  than  do  the  Thirty-nine  Articles.  The  priest 
of  the  Church  of  England  only  gives  his  assent,  and 
that  may  perfectly  well  mean  that  he  does  not  neces- 
sarily believe  every  expression  or  clause  in  the 
Articles,  but  that  he  believes  the  substance. 

But  every  one  giving  this  assent  must  believe  in 
the  metaphysical  idea  or  fiction  of  the  substance  of 
God,  in  the  metaphysical  distinction  of  persons,  and 
that  while  there  are  three  persons,  all  omniscient  and 
almighty,  the  three  are  not  three  Gods  but  only  one 
God.  He  must  believe  also  that  the  idea  of  propaga- 
tion of  race  is  applicable  to  the  Divine  Being.  He 
must  also  believe  that  Christ  as  man  was  made  out 
of  the  substance  of  the  Virgin  Mary,  just  as  he  was 
born  God  out  of  the  substance  of  the  Father,  the 
material  substance  being  a  metaphysical  idea  or 
fiction  as  much  as  the  substance  of  the  Father  is. 
He  must,  in  fact,  believe  in  all  the  metaphysical 
explanations  which  were  devised  in  the  fourth 
century  by  wrangling  divines  to  silence  those  mem- 
bers of  the  Church  who  disagreed  with  them.  He 
must  also  believe  all  the  books  of  our  present  Bibles 
to  be  canonical  or  divinely  inspired,  though  he  is  not 
bound  so  closely  to  all  the  contents  of  these  books  as 
the  Scotch  minister.  In  regard  to  original  sin  and 
divine  grace  he  must  hold  the  same  opinions  as  the 
Scotch  minister,  but  he  is  not  committed  to  so  many 
details.      These  are  only  some  of  the  opinions  which 


AND  THE  THIRTY-NINE  ARTICLES  85 

he  must  hold  if  he  is  to  be  entitled  to  his  benefice, 
and  if  he  rejects  any  one  of  them,  he  is  legally  dis- 
qualified for  holding  the  benefice.  He  must  also 
believe  all  the  statements  made  in  regard  to  the 
Church  of  Rome  and  its  practices  and  doctrines,  and 
the  priest  of  the  Church  of  England  who  does  not 
believe  them  is  not  legally  entitled  to  a  benefice. 

The  same  questions  also  which  arise  in  connexion 
with  the  temporalities  of  the  Church  of  Scotland 
arise  in  connexion  with  the  temporalities  of  the 
Church  of  England.  Are  proprietors  entitled  to 
refuse  tithes  to  those  who  do  not  hold  the  doctrines 
of  the  Articles,  or  who  adopt  practices  condemned  by 
the  Articles?  Is  the  Government  bound  to  prosecute 
them  for  breaking  the  law  ?  Are  bishops  justified  in 
ordaining  priests,  in  regard  to  whom  they  are  certain, 
or  can  make  themselves  certain,  that  they  do  not 
believe  some  of  the  Articles,  and  that  they  adopt 
practices  contrary  to  them  ?  If  the  matter  were  tried 
by  a  court  of  law,  would  not  the  decision  be  that  all 
who  have  discussed  freely  the  history  of  the  Old  and 
New  Testaments,  and  the  doctrine  of  the  various 
writers  of  the  books,  are  not  entitled  to  obtain  or 
keep  benefices,  and  that  none  of  the  ritualist  party 
can  legally  hold  a  benefice? 

Possibly  it  is  only  some  members  of  the  Low 
Church  party  that  could  sign  the  declaration  that 
they  assent  to  the  Thirty-nine  Articles  of  Religion 
without  any  reservation.     And  they  alone  would  be 


86     THE   WESTMINSTER  CONFESSION   OF  FAITH 

able  to  hold  benefices  legally.  The  rest  would  have 
to  surrender  their  benefices  to  the  State.  But  the 
formula  of  baptism  unquestionably  attributes  the 
power  of  regeneration  to  the  performance  of  that 
rite,  and  there  are  some  other  statements  in  the  ritual 
formulas  with  which  they  do  not  agree.  Besides  this, 
the  Low  Church  has  made,  during  recent  years,  con- 
siderable changes  in  its  beliefs,  such  as  those  relating 
to  inspiration,  if  I  may  judge  from  a  work  by  the 
Rev.  H.  Lawrence  Phillips  (Eliot  Stock,  1904),  called 
The  Creed  of  an  Evangelical  Churchman.  If  this  be 
the  case,  it  is  possible  that  there  is  not  a  single  priest 
in  the  Church  of  England  who  is  entitled  legally  to 
hold  a  benefice.  All  would  probably  be  bound  legally 
to  surrender  their  benefices  if  the  case  came  to  be 
decided  by  our  legal  courts. 


CHAPTER  IV 

MORAL  AND   RELIGIOUS  ASPECTS 

The  moral  effect  of  compulsory  subscription  to  a 
creed  and  to  a  ritual  is  seen  in  two  points.  First, 
such  subscription  unquestionably  deters  a  number  of 
conscientious  men  from  accepting  an  office  which 
they  cannot  obtain  but  by  signing  a  creed,  portions  of 
which  they  do  not  believe,  and  assenting  to  a  ritual  of 
which  they  do  not  entirely  approve.  Candidates  for 
the  priesthood  of  the  English  Church  are  in  a  worse 
plight  than  candidates  for  the  ministry  of  the  Scotch 
Church  in  regard  to  ritual,  for  the  candidates  of  the 
English  Church  give  their  assent  to  the  Book  of 
Common  Prayer,  and  promise  that  in  Public  Prayer 
and  Administration  of  the  Sacraments  they  will  use 
the  form  in  the  said  book  prescribed,  and  none  other, 
except  so  far  as  shall  be  ordered  by  lawful  authority. 
Now  in  the  worship  of  God  the  rule  is  laid  down  in 
Scripture,  and  is  confirmed  by  the  unanimous  testi- 
mony of  common  sense  and  of  man's  heart  when  it 
is  in  its  normal  condition,  that  God  must  be  wor- 
shipped in  spirit  and  in  truth.     The  man  who  prays 

87 


88     THE   WESTMINSTER   CONFESSION   OF  FAITH 

should  never  utter  a  word  that  he  does  not  believe 
with  his  whole  heart,  and  everything  that  is  said 
should  be  said  with  the  firm  conviction  that  God 
knows  all  the  thoughts  and  lives  of  men,  and  that 
nothing  is  concealed  from  Him.  Man,  therefore,  in 
communing  with  his  Maker  should  be  as  accurate  in 
his  statements  as  he  can  be.  He  should  not  intro- 
duce into  his  prayers  historical  blunders.  He  should 
not  say  anything  inconsistent  with  the  absolute 
purity  and  holiness  of  the  Divine  Being,  and  every 
sentiment  should  aim  at  being  a  sentiment  worthy  of 
the  noblest  aspirations  of  man's  nature.  How  are 
these  plain  principles  carried  out  in  the  Prayer  Book  ? 
Priests  and  congregations  repeat  to  the  Almighty 
such  words  as  these :  "  O  daughter  of  Babylon, 
wasted  with  misery,  yea  happy  shall  he  be  that 
rewardeth  thee,  as  thou  hast  served  us.  Blessed 
shall  he  be  that  taketh  thy  children  and  throweth 
them  against  the  stones."  ^  "  We  took  sweet  counsel 
together,  and  walked  in  the  house  of  God  as  friends. 
Let  death  come  hastily  upon  them,  and  let  them  go 
down  quick  into  hell."^  "Break  their  teeth,  O  God, 
in  their  mouths:  smite  the  jawbones  of  the  lions.  .  .  . 
Let  them  consume  away  like  a  snail,  and  be  like  the 
untimely  fruit  of  a  woman,  and  let  them  not  see  the 
sun.  .  .  .  The  righteous  shall  rejoice  when  he  seeth 
the  vengeance :  he  shall  wash  his  footsteps  in  the 
blood  of  the  ungodly." ^     "Let  them  fall  upon  the 

^  Psalm  cxxxvii.  8,  9.       ^  Psalm  Iv.  15.       ^  Psalm  Iviii.  6,  7,  9. 


AND  THE  THIRTY-NINE  ARTICLES  89 

edge  of  the  sword,  that  they  may  be  a  portion  for 
foxes." ^  "  Let  them  be  confounded  and  vexed  ever 
more  and  more,  let  them  be  put  to  shame  and 
perish."  2 

It  is  easy  to  find  excuse  for  some  of  these  wild 
expressions  when  we  remember  how  serious  were 
the  trials  which  the  Jews  underwent  at  all  periods, 
but  especially  in  Maccabean  times.  They  had  many 
enemies  and  were  in  great  perplexities.  But  the 
Christian  has  no  enemies,  and  the  attitude  of  his 
mind  should  be  that  of  entire  faith  in  God  and 
contentment.  The  passages  in  the  Psalms  relating 
to  vengeance  on  enemies  become  untrue  as  the 
representation  of  his  feelings  and  beliefs,  and  should 
not  be  uttered  as  if  they  were  his.  Strike  such 
passages  out  of  the  Psalms,  and  the  rest  of  the 
words  constitute  the  most  beautiful,  touching,  and 
devout  songs  of  praise  and  prayer  in  all  literature 
and  worship. 

It  seems  to  me  also  a  doubtful  thing  to  stereo- 
type worship  as  expressed  in  old  forms  of  worship. 
To  take  one  notable  instance.  The  Lord's  Prayer 
is  sacred  to  many  in  the  forms  in  which  it  appears 
in  the  Prayer  Book,  for  they  have  repeated  it 
thousands  of  times ;  but  they  should  put  the  ques- 
tion to  themselves,  What  does  the  Almighty  think 
of  it?  Does  He  wish  that  it  should  be  repeated 
as   a  charm,  or  does   He  expect   His   worshippers 

'  Psalm  Ixiii.  ii.  '^  Psalm  Ixxxiii.  17. 


90     THE  WESTMINSTER   CONFESSION   OF  FAITH 

to  pray  the  prayers  given  in  it  ?  Now,  first  of  all, 
it  is  doubtful  whether  it  is  the  Lord's  Prayer.  It 
is  not  in  the  triple  tradition  of  the  Synoptics.  It  is 
not  in  St.  Mark,  and  it  is  not  in  the  Gospel  of  St. 
John.  Its  omission  from  the  Gospels  of  St.  Mark 
and  St.  John  necessarily  attracts  notice,  and  suggests 
that  there  must  be  some  explanation  of  this.  Did 
the  writers  intentionally  omit  it,  or  was  it  unknown 
to  them  ?  Then  the  forms  in  which  it  occurs  in 
St.  Matthew  and  St.  Luke  differ  much  from  each 
other.  In  the  best  MSS.  of  St.  Luke  the  Prayer, 
as  in  the  Revised  Version,  is  :  "  Father,  Hallowed 
be  thy  name.  Thy  kingdom  come.  Give  us  day  by 
day  our  daily  bread.  And  forgive  us  our  sins  :  for 
we  ourselves  also  forgive  every  one  that  is  indebted 
to  us.  And  bring  us  not  into  temptation."  Dr. 
Chase,  in  an  admirable  monograph  on  "  The  Lord's 
Prayer  in  the  Early  Church,"  maintains  that  the 
Lord's  Prayer  "was  originally  in  Aramaic," ^  and 
"that  in  the  period  which  intervened  between  the 
occasion  when  our  Lord  first  taught  the  Prayer 
and  the  time  when  the  Evangelists  gave  it  a  place 
in  the  Gospels,  it  had  passed  through  one  stage 
and  had  already  entered  upon  the  second  stage 
of  its  history." 2  The  form  in  St.  Luke  would  belong 
to  the  second  stage.  The  MSS.  of  St.  Luke^  con- 
tained a  singular  variation.     The  words,  "  Let  thy 

1  p.  13.  2  p_  12. 

^  The  evidence  is  given  in  Tischendorf  ad  locum,  and  by  Chase. 


AND   THE  THIRTY-NINE   ARTICLES  Ql 

holy  Spirit  come  upon  us  and  purify  us,"  were  read 
instead  of  "  Thy  kingdom  come,"  and  the  frequent 
and  peculiar  mention  of  the  Holy  Spirit  throughout 
St.  Luke's  Gospel  might  suggest  that  the  words  came 
from  St.  Luke's  own  hand.  But  however  this  may 
be,  it  is  remarkable  that  the  words  used  in  St.  Luke 
could  now  be  used  by  all  Christians  in  the  present 
day  without  any  reserve,  except  perhaps  the  prayer 
for  forgiveness.  But  such  a  statement  does  not  apply 
to .  the  form  in  St.  Matthew.  The  opening  words, 
"  Our  Father  which  art  in  Heaven,"  and  the  prayer, 
"  Thy  will  be  done,  as  in  heaven,  so  on  earth,"  imply 
the  belief  that  God  resides  in  a  region  close  above 
our  visible  sky,  and  that  there  are  myriads  of  angels 
and  other  beings  up  there  who  have  never  sinned. 
The  word  heaven  teems  with  beautiful  associations, 
and  we  willingly  forget  that  the  word  translated 
"  heaven "  is  merely  our  ordinary  sky,  not  believed 
now  by  anyone  to  be  a  solid  flooring  or  firmament 
supporting  wide  habitable  regions.  Then  the  prayer, 
"  Give  us  this  day  our  daily  bread,"  is  appropriate 
only  if  it  were  said  in  the  morning.  It  would  be 
nonsensical  if  it  were  said  after  the  person  had  eaten 
his  daily  bread.  It  would  make  better  sense,  and 
more  in  harmony  with  the  Greek  words,  if  the  trans- 
lation ran,  "  Give  us  this  day  our  bread  for  the 
coming  day,"  as  the  margin  of  the  Revised  Version 
suggests.  And  the  words  would  be  very  appropriate 
to  the  poor  disciples  of  Jesus,  who  probably  lived 


92     THE  WESTMINSTER  CONFESSION   OF  FAITH 

from  hand  to  mouth,  and  were  glad  to  pluck  the  ears 
of  corn  to  satiate  their  hunger  as  they  passed  through 
the  fields  on  the  Sabbath  day,^  and  most  of  his 
followers  may  have  been  paid  day  by  day,  as  in  the 
parable.^  But  the  words  are  totally  inappropriate  to 
those  who  attend  our  churches,  for  their  daily  food 
is  assured  for  them  by  invested  capital,  or  by  com- 
fortable salaries,  and  even  the  poor  are  generally 
sure  of  their  food  for  a  week  on  end  at  least. 

The  word  eTriovaiog,  translated  "daily"  or  "to- 
morrow's," occurs  nowhere  but  in  the  Lord's  Prayer 
in  St.  Matthew  and  St.  Luke,  and  the  meaning 
"  to-morrow's  "  is  only  the  most  probable  of  the  mean- 
ings assigned  to  it.  Naturally  some  sought  a  higher 
meaning  in  the  word,  and  Jerome  translated  it 
"  supersubstantialem  " — that  is,  the  bread  that  feeds 
the  soul  for  eternal  life — the  bread  mentioned  in 
the  Gospel  of  St.  John. 

The  next  prayer,  "  Forgive  us  our  sins ;  for  we 
ourselves  also  forgive  every  one  that  is  indebted  to 
us,"  is  a  Jewish  prayer.  It  is  based  on  the  idea  that 
God  can  forgive  sins  out  of  His  pure  mercy  without 
any  expiation  or  satisfaction  of  Divine  justice,  and 
the  following  clause  implies  that  man  can  do  the 
same  to  his  fellow-men,  without  any  satisfaction  of 
human  justice.  It  would,  therefore,  be  difficult  for 
one  who  signs  the  Thirty-nine  Articles  to  utter  the 
prayer  in  the  form  in  which  it  occurs  in  the  Gospels. 

^  Matt.  xii.  I.  2  Matt.  xx.  2. 


AND  THE   THIRTY-NINE   ARTICLES  93 

The  variations  in  the  reading  of  the  Lord's  Prayer, 
and  in  the  interpretation  of  some  of  its  words,  prove 
that  the  early  Church  had  no  hesitation  in  altering 
the  forms  to  suit  their  own  ideas,  and  even  in  the 
Prayer  Book  two  different  forms,  one  of  which  cannot 
be  correct,  occur  in  the  same  service,  that  of  the 
Morning  Prayer,  and  again  in  that  of  the  Evening 
Prayer. 

In  these  same  services  it  is  curious  to  listen  to  the 
people  of  the  present  day  chanting  odes  composed  by 
Jewish  men  or  women  who  rejoiced  that  their  Messiah 
had  come  to  deliver  them  from  their  enemies  and 
from  the  hands  of  all  that  hated  them,  and  to  give 
them  the  independence  which  they  imagined  Jehovah 
had  sworn  to  procure  for  them  in  His  holy  Covenant. 
The  independence  is  as  far  off  as  ever. 

Perhaps  the  portion  of  the  service  which  may 
awaken  the  greatest  qualms  of  conscience  is  that 
which  contains  the  Creeds.  It  is  difficult  to  conceive 
what  idea  these  can  represent  in  the  worship  of  the 
Almighty.  The  first  formal  Creed,  the  Nicene,  was 
prepared  at  the  command  of  the  Emperor  Constantine, 
in  order  to  produce  harmony  and  peace  in  the  Church. 
But  to  his  sorrow  he  found  that  it  failed  to  do  this. 
And  subsequent  Creeds  were  framed  in  order  to 
deprive  those  who  were  deemed  heterodox  from  the 
benefits  of  State  connexion  and  sometimes  to  punish 
them.  They  do  not  involve  the  feeling  of  reverence 
or  worship.     The  Almighty  knows  what  the  utterers 


94     THE   WESTMINSTER   CONFESSION   OF  FAITH 

of  the  words  feel  in  regard  to  them,  and  surely  the 
circumstance  reaches  sublimity  when  poor,  frail 
mortals  inform  the  Omniscient  that  every  one  who 
does  not  believe  the  metaphysical  doctrine  of  the 
Trinity  cannot  be  saved,  but  without  doubt  must 
perish  everlastingly. 

But  the  second  moral  aspect  of  the  present  state 
of  matters  deserves  careful  consideration.  There 
is  no  doubt  that  a  large  body  of  the  people  considers 
that  a  person  who  signs  a  document  as  the  confession 
of  his  faith,  or  assents  to  Articles  of  Religion,  while 
all  the  time  he  does  not  believ^e  some  of  the  doc- 
trines contained  in  the  Confession  or  in  the  Articles, 
is  acting  a  dishonest  part,  and  special  indignation 
is  felt  when  the  signature  is  made  in  order  that 
pecuniary  advantages  may  be  gained.  It  is  not 
easy  to  ascertain  how  widely  this  opinion  is  spread, 
but  it  is  met  with  everywhere,  and  among  learned 
and  unlearned.  People  thus  come  to  distrust  minis- 
ters and  priests,  and  this  distrust  forms  a  great 
barrier  to  the  advancement  of  true  religion.  Particu- 
larly strong  is  this  opinion  in  regard  to  those  who 
carry  on  ritual  practices  in  direct  opposition  to  the 
Articles  to  which  they  have  given  assent.  A  man 
may  hold  many  opinions  contrary  to  the  Confession 
or  Articles  without  attracting  much  or  any  attention. 
It  is  only  when  his  opinions  are  regarded  as  outrage- 
ously antagonistic  to  prevalent  beliefs  that  the  popular 
mind  takes  an  interest  in  them.     But  the  simplest 


AND   THE   THIRTY-NINE   ARTICLES  95 

man  can  see  with  his  own  eyes  that  the  priest  is 
violating  the  practical  ideas  laid  down  in  the  Articles. 
Accordingly,  the  most  violent  denunciations  are 
made  against  those  who  introduce  what  are  called 
Romish  practices  into  the  ritual  of  the  English 
Church.  Yet  the  men  who  have  signed  the  Con- 
fession of  Faith  without  believing  all  the  doctrines, 
or  carried  on  practices  denounced  in  the  Articles,  are 
not  sinners  above  others.  Their  conduct  admits 
of  defence.  Those  who  belong  to  the  Scotch  Church 
hold  that  that  Church  has  always  claimed  consider- 
able independence  and  afforded  much  latitude  of 
opinion,  that  as  young  men  they  were  anxious  to 
become  ministers  of  the  Church,  that  the  obligations 
of  the  Law  seemed  obsolete,  that  in  choosing  the 
ministry  as  their  profession  they  were  not  actuated 
by  pecuniary  consideration  at  all  or  mainly,  and 
that  they  might  have  made  much  more  pecuniary 
gain  if  they  had  chosen  some  other  profession. 
And  many  of  the  men  who  have  thus  thought  and 
thus  think  have  been  amongst  the  greatest  ornaments 
of  the  Church  through  their  piety,  and  added  much 
to  the  intelligence  of  the  nation  by  their  learning. 
This  can  also  be  said  emphatically  of  the  Ritualists 
and  Broad-Churchmen  of  the  English  Church. 
Many  of  the  Ritualists  have  been  eminently  earnest 
and  devoted  to  their  work,  and  have  proved  them- 
selves the  trusted  friends  of  the  working  classes. 
Many   of    the   Broad  Church  are  distinguished  for 


96     THE   WESTMINSTER   CONFESSION   OF  FAITH 

every  virtue,  wide  philanthropy,  a  deep  concern  in 
all  that  relates  to  the  welfare  of  man  and  a  devotion 
to  truth  and  learning,  that  have  placed  the  theology 
of  England  in  such  a  position  as  to  command  the 
attention  and  respect  of  the  world. 


CHAPTER  V 
THE   REMEDY.    WHAT   IS   TO   BE   DONE? 

It  is  plain  that,  if  what  I  have  said  is  at  all  correct, 
there  is  need  for  immediate  action,  A  large  number 
of  our  best  and  most  thoughtful  men  must  be  ill  at 
ease.  On  a  full  consideration  of  their  position  in  the 
light  thrown  on  it  by  the  opinions  of  the  legal  House 
of  Lords,  many  may  feel  that  they  are  not  entitled  to 
hold  the  paid  offices  which  they  now  enjoy ;  for  all 
the  judges  were  of  opinion  that  deviation  in  any  way 
from  the  creeds  of  the  Churches  to  which  paid 
officials  belong  abrogates  the  right  to  receive  the 
payment.  And  at  any  moment  the  question  may 
be  raised  in  a  court  of  law  whether  a  minister  of  the 
Established  Church  of  Scotland  or  a  priest  of  the 
Established  Church  of  England  is  not  retaining  his 
stipend  or  his  benefice  in  direct  violation  of  the  law 
of  the  land  as  expressly  laid  down  in  Acts  of  Parlia- 
ment that  have  not  been  abolished. 

The  remedy  to  be  applied  to  the  present  constitu- 
tion  of  the   Established   Churches  of  England  and 
Scotland  is  not  easy  to  find,  and  the  best  minds  of 
the  country  ought  to  be  employed  in  searching  for 
H  97 


98     THE  WESTMINSTER  CONFESSION   OF  FAITH 

it.  I  can  only  present  a  few  considerations  which 
cannot  go  beyond  the  force  of  mere  suggestions. 

First,  an  attempt  might  be  made  to  frame  a  creed 
which  might  be  agreeable  to  a  larger  number.  But 
the  difficulties  here  are  enormous.  It  is  impossible 
so  to  express,  in  comparatively  few  words,  the  dog- 
mas which  it  is  intended  to  express,  for  then  the 
words  become  vague  and  general,  and  anyone  can 
sign  them.  Whenever  one  goes  beyond  these  vague 
and  general  terms,  then  arise  two  difficulties.  First, 
the  terms  become  more  narrow  and  limited  than 
those  that  are  to  be  found  in  Scripture,  and  there  is 
no  guarantee  for  the  correctness  of  the  dogmas  with- 
out assuming  the  infallibility  of  the  persons  who 
framed  the  dogmas.  And,  second,  it  is  agreed  in  both 
Churches  that  it  is  only  doctrines  or  dogmas  which 
can  be  supported  from  the  Scriptures  that  ought  to 
be  in  a  creed. 

Second,  some  in  Scotland  would  feel  inclined  to 
adopt  the  proposal  or  Declaratory  Act  of  the  Estab- 
lished Church  of  Scotland  to  the  effect  that  the  Con- 
fession of  Faith  is  to  be  regarded  as  an  infallible  rule 
of  Faith  and  Worship  in  so  far  as  it  accords  with 
Holy  Scripture  interpreted  by  the  Holy  Spirit.  But 
it  is  not  easy  to  understand  the  words  "  as  interpreted 
by  the  Holy  Spirit."  And  the  question  which  most 
of  all  perplexes  the  mind  of  the  present  age  is  left 
unsettled.  In  the  present  age  it  is  impossible  to  pre- 
vent the  books  of  the  Old  and  New  Testament  being 


AND   THE   THIRTY-NINE   ARTICLES  99 

treated  like  the  books  sacred  and  profane  of  other 
nations.  Inquiry  will  be  made  into  their  origin  and 
history.  Scholars  will  ascertain  their  meaning,  not 
by  traditional  or  allegorical  methods,  but  by  deter- 
mining what  the  authors  of  the  books  meant  to  say  to 
the  persons  for  whom  they  were  written,  and  scholars 
will  be  guided  in  this  matter  by  investigations  into 
the  mode  of  thought  and  the  history  of  the  period  in 
which  they  were  written.  Now  such  inquiries  are 
sure  to  show  that  there  was  wide  divergence  of 
thought  in  the  various  periods,  and  that  the  authors 
of  the  books  differed  from  each  other  in  their  doctrines 
just  as  in  actual  life  St.  Paul  resisted  St.  Peter  to  the 
face  because  he  stood  condemned. 

A  third  plan  is  to  leave  the  doctrines  to  be  deter- 
mined by  the  Churches  themselves.  In  the  Scotch 
Established  Church  the  General  Assembly  would 
have  the  power,  proper  precautions  being  taken 
that  no  doctrine  should  be  altered  and  no  new 
doctrine  introduced  except  on  certain  conditions, 
and  a  similar  arrangement  might  be  made  with  the 
Convocations  of  the  English  Established  Church. 
But  in  this  case  the  existing  Acts  of  Parliament 
relating  to  the  subject  would  have  to  be  abolished. 
And  in  the  Parliamentary  discussion  of  the  subject 
it  might  be  very  difficult  to  convince  Members  of 
Parliament  that  national  funds  could  be  assigned 
to  bodies  beyond  their  control  for  the  inculcation  of 
any  doctrines  which  these  might  please  to  adopt. 


100    THE  WESTMINSTER  CONFESSION   OF  FAITH 

Fourth,  it  might  be  worth  consideration  whether 
a  creed  is  of  any  use  whatever  for  religious  purposes. 
The  creeds  historically  were  made  to  exclude  men 
from  the  Church  and  to  brand  heretics.  But  they 
do  not  regulate  or  inspire  belie  ,  and  they  do  not 
determine  the  conduct  which  follows  on  belief  The 
demons,  St.  James  thought,  were  completely  ortho- 
dox. '*  Thou  believest  that  God  is  one,  thou  doest 
well,  the  demons  also  believe  and  shudder."  It  is 
easy  to  give  assent  to  creeds  if  you  are  indifferent 
about  the  matter ;  but  the  Christianity  of  Christ 
insists  on  good  deeds  as  the  criterion  of  attachment 
to  him  and  of  approbation  at  the  final  judgment. 
His  summary  of  belief  and  of  practice  is  contained 
in  the  answer  to  the  question  put  to  him,  What 
commandment  is  the  first  of  all  ?  Jesus  answered, 
"  The  first  is,  Hear,  O  Israel,  The  Lord  our  God,  the 
Lord  is  one :  and  thou  shalt  love  the  Lord  thy  God 
with  all  thy  heart,  and  with  all  thy  soul,  and  with  all 
thy  mind,  and  with  all  thy  strength.  The  second  is 
this,  Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbour  as  thyself.  There 
is  none  other  commandment  greater  than  these." 
The  remark  of  the  scribe  who  had  put  the  question 
received  the  approbation  of  Christ.  "And  the  scribe 
said  unto  him.  Of  a  truth.  Master,  thou  hast  well 
said  that  he  is  one ;  and  there  is  none  other  but  he : 
and  to  love  him  with  all  the  heart,  and  with  all  the 
understanding,  and  with  all  the  strength,  and  to  love 
his  neighbour  as  himself,  is  much  more  than  all  the 


AND  THE  THIRTY-NINE  ARTICLES  lOI 

whole  burnt  offerings  and  sacrifices."  ^  In  Matthew 
xxii.  40,  Jesus  says  that  "On  these  two  command- 
ments hangeth  the  whole  law  and  the  prophets,"  and 
in  Luke  x.  27  the  obedience  to  these  command- 
ments is  laid  down  as  the  sure  way  to  inherit  eternal 
life.  A  church  based  on  this  belief  and  carrying  it 
out  in  practice  would  be  an  unmingled  blessing  to 
the  world,  and  no  one  could  easily  raise  doubts 
as  to  the  soundness  and  wisdom  of  the  command- 
ments. This,  then,  should  be  the  formula  of  admis- 
sion to  the  Church  of  Christ.  And  many  people 
are  now  noticing  that  Christ's  sayings  contain  almost 
no  dogmatic  statements — that,  indeed,  he  remained 
in  his  religious  practice  a  Jew  to  the  end  of  his  days 
on  earth,  and  as  a  Jew  dwelt  upon  concrete  thoughts 
and  facts,  and  indulged  in  no  metaphysical  or  even 
logical  schemes  of  salvation  or  of  man  or  of  the 
universe.  "  Back  to  Jesus  !  "  is  their  cry.  And  let 
the  further  development  of  dogmatics  and  of  sys- 
tems be  regarded  as  arising  from  a  natural  tendency 
of  human  nature  to  inquire,  but  not  as  unbreakable 
fetters  of  thought  and  practice,  or  as  impassable 
barriers  to  love  and  friendship. 

In  these  circumstances  it  might  be  well  for  the 
present  generation  to  consider  the  proposals  made 
by  two  of  the  greatest  thinkers,  Coleridge  and 
Arnold,  in  regard  to  this  subject.  They  saw  that 
even  in  their  time  there  was  no  National  Church  in 

1  Mark  xii.  28-33. 


102    THE   WESTMINSTER   CONFESSION   OF  FAITH 

England — that  the  English  Established  Church  was 
so  only  in  name :  for  nearly  the  half  of  the  whole 
population  did  not  belong  to  that  Church,  and  a 
large  number  who  nominally  belonged  to  it  were 
indifferent  to  its  doctrines,  and  went  to  its  worship 
purely  because  it  was  the  fashion.  Both  of  them 
urged  that  funds  belonging  to  the  whole  nation 
should  be  spent  for  the  benefit  of  the  whole  nation. 
Coleridge  states  what  he  conceived  to  be  the  work  of 
a  national  Church  thus:^  "  The  proper  object  and  end 
of  the  National  Church  is  civilisation  with  freedom ; 
and  the  duty  of  its  ministers,  could  they  be  contem- 
plated merely  and  exclusively  as  officiaries  of  the 
National  Church,  would  be  fulfilled  in  the  communi- 
cation of  that  degree  and  kind  of  knowledge  to  all, 
the  possession  of  which  is  necessary  for  all  in  order 
to  their  CIVILITY,  By  civility  I  mean  all  the  qualities 
essential  to  a  citizen,  and  devoid  of  which  no  people 
or  class  of  people  can  be  calculated  on  by  the  rulers 
and  leaders  of  the  State  for  the  conservation  or  pro- 
motion of  its  essential  interests."  Coleridge's  idea 
corresponds  with  the  idea  of  the  early  Church  as  to 
its  object  and  aim — with  this  difference,  however,  that 
the  national  aspect  of  it  was  unknown,  and  its  aim 
was  to  make  all  men,  whether  Jew  or  Greek,  bond  or 
free,  members  of  one  great  community,  of  whom 
Christ  was  the  leader  and  God  the  absolute  sovereign. 
Arnold  brings  out  this  idea  fully  in  his  Fragment  on 

^  On  the  Constitution  of  Church  and  State  (1830),  p.  58. 


AND   THE   THIRTY-NINE  ARTICLES  IO3 

the  Church}  "  Christ's  Church,  then,"  he  says,  "  was 
to  be  a  Society,  all  whose  members  were  to  be  active 
in  promoting  the  Society's  objects.  And  this  object 
was  to  be  the  putting  down  of  moral  evil,  both 
within  the  Church  and  without  it.  It  was  to  be  the 
leaven  to  leaven  the  world — clearly,  that  is,  to  change 
its  moral  character ;  and  with  respect  to  its  operations 
upon  itself,  how  magnificently  is  it  described  as 
working  by  the  grace  of  its  divine  Head  through  the 
instrumentality  of  every  joint  and  member  perform- 
ing its  own  portion  of  the  work,  to  its  own  growth 
in  truth  arid  in  love,  in  intellectual  and  moral  per- 
fection, according  to  no  less  a  standard  than  the 
perfection  of  nature  of  Christ  Himself,  the  All-wise 
and  the  Most  Holy.  For  this  the  members  each 
separately  and  the  body  all  together  are  to  labour 
together  with  their  Lord,  that  the  Church,  this  great 
Society,  may  become  fully  glorious,  *  not  having  spot 
or  wrinkle  or  any  such  thing,  but  holy  and  without 
blemish.'" 

"There  is,  then,  a  Society  in  existence  for  the  putting 
down  of  all  moral  evil  by  the  combined  exertions 
of  all  its  members.  This  Society  is  the  Church  of 
Christ,  and  every  Christian  in  England  is  a  member 
of  it.  How  is  it  that  we  have  not  rightly  appreciated 
our  relations  and  duties  as  such  ?  How  is  it  that  the 
Church  amongst  us  retains  so  faint  a  resemblance 
to  a  society,  and  works  with  such  insufficient  efficacy 

^  Fragment  on  the  Church  (1845),  p.  150. 


104    THE  WESTMINSTER   CONFESSION   OF   FAITH 

— nay,  apparently  with  so  inadequate  a  conception 
— of  its  true  object?  The  explanation  of  the  fact 
is  humiliating  indeed,  but  it  ought  to  be  most  in- 
structive." 

The  Scotch  Reformers  could  not  be  expected 
to  have  such  broad  and  grand  conceptions  as  those; 
which  Dr.  Arnold  strove  to  impress  on  his  generation, 
but  they  held  something  like  the  idea  of  Coleridge 
in  a  somewhat  inchoate  condition.  The  funds  which 
were  in  their  time  at  the  disposal  of  the  nation  were 
funds  that  had  belonged  to  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church,  and  the  Reformers  expressed  their  doubts 
whether  such  funds  belonged  to  ecclesiastics.  Among 
the  Articles  of  which  the  Lollards  of  Kyle  were 
accused  in  1494,  is  this  one :  "  That  teythes  ought  not 
to  be  given  to  Ecclesiasticall  men."  Again,  in  1547, 
John  Rough  and  John  Knox  ^  were  summoned  before 
a  Convention  of  Grayfriars  and  Blackfriars  in  St. 
Leonard's  Yards  in  St.  Andrews,  and  one  of  the 
Articles  brought  against  them  was  :  "  The  teindis  of 
Goddis  law  do  not  apperteane  of  necessitie  to  the 
Kirkmen."-  In  harmony  with  this  opinion,  the 
composers  of  the  First  Book  of  Discipline  advised 
the  Great  Council  of  Scotland  to  devote  the  funds 
to  the  Church,  to  the  poor,  and  to  the  schools. 
"  These  twa  sortis  of  men,  that  is  to  say,  the  Minis- 
ters and  the  Pure,  togidder  with  the  Schollis,  when 

^  Knox's  Works,  Laing's  eel. ,  vol.  i.  p.  8. 
^  Ibid.,  p.  194. 


AND  THE  THIRTY-NINE  ARTICLES  105 

ordour  shall  takin  thairanent,  must  be  sustened  upon 
the  chargeis  of  the  Churche."  ^  And  they  make  pro- 
vision for  the  ministers,  the  poor,  and  universities 
and  schools.  The  Universities,  for  instance,  were  to 
be  doted  with  temporal  lands,  with  rents  and  revenues 
of  the  Bishopricks'  temporality  and  of  the  Churches 
Collegiate  so  far  as  their  ordinary  charges  shall 
require.^  But  of  this  provision  for  the  nation  not 
a  penny  now  goes  to  the  poor  or  to  the  schools,  and 
legislation  has  compelled  the  transference  of  a  large 
portion  of  the  teinds  assigned  to  the  Universities  to 
the  stipends  of  the  parish  ministers.  The  Established 
Church  of  Scotland  also,  like  the  Established  Church 
of  England,  no  longer  represents  the  nation,  its  num- 
bers being  less  than  those  of  the  other  religious  de- 
nominations in  Scotland,  though  if  all  the  Presby- 
terian Churches  were  to  be  united, their  numbers  would 
be  much  greater  than  those  of  all  other  denomina- 
tions put  together.  These  circumstances  force  re- 
consideration of  the  allocation  of  the  funds  to  the 
Established  Church  of  Scotland,  And  it  ought  to 
be  matter  of  great  consideration  what  is  the  best 
way  of  disposing  of  them. 

^  Knox's   Works,  vol.  ii.  p.  221.  ^  Ibid.,  p.  218. 


CHAPTER  VI 

NON-ESTABLISHED    CHURCHES   AND    NON- 
NATIONAL   FUNDS 

All  remarks  which  have  been  made  on  remedies 
relate  only  to  the  funds  which  have  been  assigned 
by  Parliament  on  condition  in  Scotland  that  every 
partaker  of  them  shall  believe  every  word  of  the 
Confession  of  Faith,  and  sign  a  statement  to  that 
effect ;  and  on  condition  in  England  that  every  par- 
taker of  them  shall  give  an  honest  assent  to  the 
Thirty-nine  Articles  and  to  the  three  Creeds  con- 
tained in  the  Prayer  Book  and  to  everything  else  in 
the  Prayer  Book.  But  both  Churches  possess  con- 
siderable endowments  which  have  been  bestowed  on 
them  in  recent  times.  These  endowments  seem  to 
be  in  the  same  position  as  the  endowments  belong- 
ing to  other  denominations.  They  are  vested  in 
trustees,  and  are  regulated  by  the  law  of  trust.  It  is 
in  this  connexion  that  the  recent  decision  of  the 
legal  House  of  Lords  has  given  rise  to  so  much 
doubt,  perplexity,  and  anxiety.  And  it  has  given 
rise  to  this  anxiety  because  it  is  felt  that  the  mode 
of  trial,  the  diverse  opinions  expressed  by  the  various 

1 06 


THE  THIRTY-NINE  ARTICLES  I07 

judges,  and  the  results  of  the  judgment  have 
awakened  in  many  strong  feelings  of  dissatisfaction. 
The  case  stands  thus  : 

The  Free  Church  of  Scotland  wished  to  unite 
with  the  United  Presbyterian  Church  of  Scotland. 
The  great  majority  of  the  Free  Church  were  long 
ago  convinced  that  such  a  union  would  be  beneficial 
to  both  Churches,  but  they  saw  that  there  might  be 
financial  difficulties  in  their  way.  They  therefore 
obtained  the  best  legal  advice  they  could  get.  The 
very  best  lawyers  that  Scotland  could  produce  gave 
their  opinion  that  there  was  no  legal  obstacle  to  the 
union,  and  the  union  was  effected.  The  case  came 
before  the  Outer  Division  of  the  Court  of  Session, 
and  the  judge,  distinguished  for  his  acquaintance 
with  Scotch  ecclesiastical  law,  pronounced  his  judg- 
ment in  favour  of  the  United  Free  Church.  The 
case  was  appealed  to  the  Second  Division  of  the 
Court  of  Session,  and  again  three  judges,  who  knew 
thoroughly  the  history  and  character  of  the  Scotch 
Church  and  the  Scotch  people,  confirmed  the  decision 
of  the  judge  of  the  Outer  House.  An  appeal  was 
then  made  to  the  House  of  Lords,  and  there  a  mode 
of  procedure  followed  which  filled  Scotsmen  with 
astonishment.  The  presiding  judge  seemed  to  take 
up  a  position  of  direct  antagonism  to  that  of  the 
previous  judges,  interrupted  the  counsel  very  fre- 
quently, and  put  questions  which  appeared  to  show 
ignorance  of  the  most  elementary  facts  of  Scotch 


I08    THE   WESTMINSTER   CONFESSION   OF  FAITH 

belief  and  history.  The  hearing  of  evidence  came 
to  an  end,  and  the  judges  took  the  case,  as  the 
Scotch  term  is,  avizandum.  But  everyone  was  per- 
plexed by  the  extraordinary  delay  that  ensued. 
Week  after  week  passed,  and  no  judgment  was 
forthcoming.  It  was  rumoured  that  the  six  judges 
were  equally  divided  in  opinion,  and  afterwards  it 
was  affirmed  that  Lord  Shand  had  written  out  his 
opinion.  No  explanation  has  yet  been  given  why 
the  judges  did  not  meet  and  deliver  their  opinions. 

Lord  Shand  died,  and  it  was  therefore  necessary 
that  there  should  be  a  new  trial.  Again  great  dis- 
satisfaction was  felt  that  the  Lord  Chancellor,  in  his 
selection  of  new  judges,  had  chosen  two  English 
instead  of  two  Scotch  judges.  It  was  announced  that 
Lord  Kinross  had  been  requested  to  act,  but  he  was 
too  ill  in  health  to  be  expected  to  undertake  the 
task.  There  were,  however,  two  Scotch  judges  in 
the  House  of  Lords  eminently  fitted  to  consider  the 
case.  And  it  certainly  requires  explanation  why 
they  were  not  chosen. 

The  decision  at  length  came.  Five  of  the  seven 
judges  came  to  one  conclusion,  the  other  two  came 
to  a  different.  The  two  agreed  with  the  four  judges 
of  the  Court  of  Session  and  with  Lord  Shand.  Thus 
there  were  seven  judges  for  the  conclusion  which  the 
legal  House  of  Lords  by  a  majority  rejected,  and  five 
judges  for  the  decision  which  became  final.  Now  how 
can  a  layman  in  law  matters  put  any  confidence  in 


AND  THE  THIRTY-NINE  ARTICLES  IO9 

such  a  decision  ?  Can  that  be  correct  law  which 
seven  able  judges  declare  to  be  wrong  and  only  five 
to  be  right  ?  The  decision  destroys  all  confidence  in 
the  judges.  And  if  the  decisions  were  placed  before 
the  Scotch  people,  there  is  no  doubt  that  they  would 
state  their  belief  that  they  place  much  greater  con- 
fidence in  the  ability  of  the  seven  judges  than  in  the 
ability  of  the  five,  and  if  they  had,  in  perfect  ignor- 
ance of  the  result,  to  make  their  choice  between  the 
decisions,  they  would  have  much  preferred  the  de- 
cision of  the  seven  to  that  of  the  five. 

When  the  decision  was  made  public  there  was 
one  startling  anomaly  that  showed  itself  at  once  to 
those  acquainted  with  the  circumstance.  This  was 
that  men  now  living,  who  had  given  large  sums  to 
the  funds  in  dispute,  saw  their  contributions  diverted 
and  set  apart  for  purposes  for  which  they  never 
would  have  given  them.  And  those  who  knew  many 
of  the  most  generous  of  the  deceased  donors  were 
quite  certain  that  they  also  would  never  have  given 
a  penny  for  the  objects  for  which  the  five  judges  now 
assigned  their  contributions.  There  thus  arose  the 
feeling  that  the  five  judges  had  made  some  mistake, 
for  it  was  not  conceivable  that  our  laws  had  been  so 
badly  framed  as  to  render  it  possible  that  judges 
could  divert  large  sums  of  money  to  purposes  for 
which  the  donors  would  certainly  not  have  contributed 
anything.  The  doubtfulness  in  regard  to  the  decision 
was  increased  when  people  had  the  opportunity  to 


no     THE   WESTMINSTER  CONFESSION   OF  FAITH 

read  the  arguments  used  for  it  in  the  authorised 
reports  of  the  pleadings.  Probably  the  doubts  would 
have  been  increased  if  the  first  pleadings  before  the 
House  of  Lords  had  been  published  along  with  the 
second,  for  the  five  judges  showed  remarkable  ignor- 
ance, real  or  pretended,  of  the  affairs  and  theology 
of  Scotland.  Here  are  specimens.  Lord  James  says 
to  Mr.  Haldane  :  "  The  first  thing  is  to  understand 
you.  I  hope  I  have  tried  my  best,  but  I  cannot  say 
I  have  succeeded  very  well  so  far."  Lord  Alverstone: 
"  Would  you  kindly  tell  me  what  you  mean  by  '  anti- 
nomy '  ?  "  The  Lord  Chancellor  :  "  That  might  do 
very  well,  but  I  am  not  quite  certain  that  I  follow  all 
you  say,  because  you  are  dealing  here  with  meta- 
physics and  not  with  theology,  I  think."  Lord 
James :  "  I  never  knew  how  incapable  I  was  of 
understanding  these  things  until  I  heard  your  argu- 
ment. I  know  it  is  my  fault  entirely,  but  I  cannot 
follow  you."  Lord  Davey :  "  I  do  not  know  what 
may  be  the  constitution  [of  the  trust]."  The  Lord 
Chancellor  :  "  I  do  not  know,  I  am  sure."  These  are 
only  specimens  of  what  went  on  throughout  the  trial. 
One  sentence  will  be  enough  as  proof  how  com- 
pletely the  Lord  Chancellor  was  ignorant  of  the 
character  of  the  Scotch  Churches,  and  I  allude  to  it 
because  a  false  idea  prevails  generally  about  Scotch 
Churches.     He  says  in  giving  his  judgment : — 

"  If  this  be  so,  there  is  no  lack  of  material  from 
which  to  deduce  the  identity  of  the  Free  Church  of 


AND   THE  THIRTY-NINE   ARTICLES  III 

Scotland.  Its  founders  left  their  Claim,  Declaration, 
and  Protest  to  stand  for  all  time  as  a  clear  ex- 
position, both  of  their  reasons  for  leaving  the  Church 
of  Scotland  when  they  did  leave  it,  and  as  a  profes- 
sion of  their  faith  as  the  true  Church  of  Scotland 
though  separated  from  the  Establishment,  which  in 
their  view  was  itself  heretical  from  its  submission  to 
the  temporal  power  in  what  they  regarded  as  ex- 
clusively spiritual."^ 

The  word  which  is  totally  inappropriate  in  this 
statement  is  the  word  "  heretical."  The  Free  Church 
never  deemed  the  Established  Church  heretical,  and 
the  Established  Church  never  deemed  the  Free 
Church  heretical. 

There  were  many  secessions  from  the  Established 
Church,  but  they  were  all  secessions  or  so-called 
Reforms,  not  schisms  or  heresies.  The  idea  of 
schism  or  heresy  forms  no  part  of  the  conceptions 
of  a  Scottish  Churchman.  A  few,  imitating  Anglican 
Divines,  have  lately  used  the  words  —  but  these 
words  are  Anglican  and  Roman  Catholic,  not  Scotch. 
People  may  hive  off  from  a  Scotch  Church,  but  the 
Scotch  Church  from  which  they  separate  does  not 
attach  any  moral  fault  to  their  religious  action.  Their 
opinions  may  be  deemed  wrong,  but  it  is  always 
allowed  that  they  have  a  right  to  form  their  own 
opinions  and  to  take  their  own  way.  And  in  doing 
so  they  incur  no  blame  from  man  and  do  not  imperil 

^  The  Free  Church  of  Scotland  Appeals  (Orr's  edition),  p.  563. 


112     THE  WESTMINSTER  CONFESSION   OF  FAITH 

their  case  before  God.  If  they  believe  in  Christ,  they 
will  be  saved  in  whatever  Church  they  may  find  a 
resting-place.  The  separation  is  not  a  schism,  and 
does  not  separate  them  from  the  universal  Church, 
which  consists  of  all,  in  every  part  of  the  world,  who 
are  doing  God's  will.  There  is  at  present  a  wide 
catholicity  (in  the  true  sense  of  the  term)  among 
Scotchmen,  and  even  the  great  majority  of  those 
who  have  signed  the  Confession  of  Faith  as  the 
confession  of  their  faith,  and  who  ought  to  believe 
that  the  Pope  of  Rome  is  "  that  Antichrist,  that  man 
of  sin  and  son  of  perdition  that  exalteth  himself 
in  the  Church  against  Christ,"  will  readily  acknow- 
ledge, as  far  as  they  can  judge,  that  the  present  Pope 
is  a  good  man,  was  an  earnest  and  devoted  pastor, 
and  is  a  true  member  of  the  Universal  Church  with 
every  reason  to  hope  for  salvation  like  other  Chris- 
tians, though  they  also  cannot  but  wonder  that  a 
man  with  only  a  moderate  amount  of  culture  and 
a  moderate  knowledge  of  theology  should  receive  the 
worship  of  thousands  and  be  invested  with  a  kind 
of  infallibility,  simply  because  he  received  a  majority 
of  votes  of  an  assembly  of  Italian  and  other  priests, 
animated  by  motives  not  all  of  them  pure  or  devout. 
And  when  in  Scotland  a  man  is  accused  of  what  is 
called  heresy,  the  whole  question  is  simply  whether 
with  the  opinions  he  holds  he  is  entitled  to  remain 
a  member  of  the  Church  in  which  he  is  accused  and 
enjoy  its  emoluments,  but  almost  no  one  denies  him 


AND  THE   THIRTY-NINE  ARTICLES  II 3 

the  right  to  entertain  any  opinion  he  chooses,  and 
almost  no  one  would  refuse  to  believe  that  he  may- 
be as  good  a  Christian  as  the  people  that  pronounce 
sentence  against  him.  Indeed,  a  heresy  hunter  in 
Scotland  occupies  an  unenviable  position.  From 
this  account  of  the  religious  attitude  of  Scotland 
we  must  except  the  Highland  "  Men "  and  their 
ministers  who  form  the  body  of  the  Minority  Free 
Church,  but  are  insignificant  in  numbers. 

The  ignorance,  or  assumed  ignorance,  of  the  five 
judges  during  the  pleadings,  or  in  their  opinions, 
naturally  awakes  great  distrust  in  their  power  to  come 
to  a  sound  conclusion.  And  what  has  followed  since 
the  judgment  was  issued  adds  to  the  distrust.  Have 
the  five  judges  convinced  the  other  Scottish  judges 
who  tried  the  case  that  they  were  wrong?  There 
cannot  be  a  doubt  that  the  opposite  is  the  case,  and 
that  these  are  more  convinced  than  ever  that  they 
were  right.  Have  they  convinced  the  eminent 
counsel,  especially  Mr.  Asher  and  Mr.  Haldane,  two 
of  the  greatest  lawyers  in  any  part  of  the  world  ? 
Have  they  convinced  any  man  of  weight  and  im- 
portance? The  Journals  are  against  them.  And 
those  who  are  bound  to  say  the  best  they  can  of 
them  do  not  go  much  further  than  state  that  the 
judges  did  well,  as  far  as  the  materials  put  before 
them  enabled  them  to  decide.  Here,  unquestionably, 
something  has  to  be  said  in  their  behalf  For  the 
case  was  so  new  and  the  issues  so  strange  that 
I 


114     THE  WESTMINSTER  CONFESSION  OF  FAITH 

various  aspects  of  the  case  may  not  have  been 
presented  fully  to  them,  probably  because  counsel 
did  not  think  such  presentation  would  be  necessary. 
When  we  come  to  the  arguments,  opinions,  and 
conclusions  of  the  five  judges,  it  is  often  not  easy 
to  make  out  what  they  are,  not  in  consequence  of 
the  difficulty  of  the  subject,  but  from  the  vagueness 
of  the  language  and  incompleteness  of  the  thinking. 
And  there  arises,  naturally,  the  feeling  that  the  whole 
subject  of  the  position  of  non-established  Churches 
as  regards  funds  requires  much  fuller  consideration. 
As  far  as  one  can  see,  the  judges  came  to  the  con- 
clusion that  the  funds  were  to  be  regarded  as  in  the 
hands  of  trustees,  and  that  the  law  of  trusts  must 
regulate  the  determination  of  the  ownership  of  the 
funds.  But  the  judges  do  not  state  plainly  what 
part  of  the  law  of  trusts  is  to  be  applied  in  this  case. 
Apparently  they  consider  one  of  the  regulations  in 
regard  to  trusts  to  be  that  if  persons  contribute  funds 
for  a  particular  purpose,  and  hand  them  over  to 
trustees,  and  if  other  persons  contribute  funds  for 
a  different  purpose  to  the  same  trustees,  the  trustees 
must  use  all  the  funds  for  the  first  purpose  and 
cannot  use  them  for  the  second,  whatever  may  have 
been  the  wishes  of  the  second  set  of  donors.  Only 
the  wishes  of  the  first  donors  are  to  be  regarded. 
An  illustration  may  show  what  seems  to  the  five 
judges  to  be  the  law  of  the  case.  A,  B,  and  C  hand 
over  ;^iooo   to    seven   trustees  to   help   incurables. 


AND  THE   THIRTY-NINE  ARTICLES  II 5 

The  seven  trustees,  following  their  own  judgment, 
and  believing  that  A,  B,  and  C  would  agree  with 
them  in  this,  resolve  to  build  a  hospital  in  which 
all  the  incurables  would  be  housed  together.  But 
in  process  of  time  the  trustees  differ  from  each 
other  in  regard  to  this  mode  of  treatment,  and 
six  of  them  have  come  to  the  conclusion,  in  conse- 
quence of  the  experience  that  they  have  had, 
that  they  could  help  incurables  more  effectively  by 
boarding  them  out ;  the  remaining  one  adheres 
to  the  plan  of  having  a  separate  institution  for 
them.  The  six  trustees  announce  that  they  have 
changed  their  ideas,  and  afterwards  D,  E,  and  F 
hand  over  to  them  i^io,ooo  to  help  the  incurables. 
The  five  judges  seem  to  think  that  notwithstanding 
that  the  contributors  knew  fully  the  change  of 
operations  which  the  six  trustees  contemplated, 
the  ;^io,ocxD  of  the  last  contributors  must  be  adminis- 
tered solely  by  the  one  trustee  who  adheres  to  the 
original  plan,  and  the  judges  refuse  to  listen  to 
evidence  about  the  intentions  of  any  but  the  first 
contributors.  Surely  the  state  of  the  law  in  regard 
to  this  matter  ought  to  be  made  clear. 

The  five  judges,  having  settled  that  only  the  law 
of  trusts  must  determine  the  point  at  issue,  then  pro- 
ceed to  inquire  how  the  identity  of  a  church  can  be 
established.  They  do  this  because  the  funds  are 
vested  in  the  General  Trustees  of  the  Free  Church 
of  Scotland  appointed  by  the  General  Assembly  of 


Il6     THE  WESTMINSTER  CONFESSION   OF  FAITH 

that  Church.  They  refuse  to  discuss  the  question 
what  is  the  constitution  of  the  Free  Church,  and 
they  take  no  note  of  the  fact  that  every  beneficiary 
of  the  Church  subscribes  a  formula  which  binds  him 
"  to  assert,  maintain,  and  defend  the  said  doctrine, 
worship,  discipline,  and  government  of  this  Church 
by  Kirk-Sessions,  Presbyteries,  Provincial  Synods 
and  General  Assemblies,  together  with  the  liberty 
and  exclusive  jurisdiction  thereof"  ;  and,  further  on, 
the  beneficiary  says,  "  I  shall  follow  no  divisive  course 
from  the  doctrine,  worship,  discipline,  government 
and  exclusive  jurisdiction  of  this  Church." 

Instead  of  discussing  the  constitution  of  the  Church 
or  Trust,  they  discuss  what  constitutes  the  identity 
of  a  Church.  This  is  not  a  legal  question,  as  far  as 
I  can  see.  The  problem  is  much  wider.  Indeed, 
the  question  as  to  what  constitutes  the  identity  of  an 
individual  has  puzzled  philosophers.  And  to  deter- 
mine what  constitutes  a  body  of  individuals  called  a 
Church  is  a  still  more  perplexing  problem.  But  the 
Lord  Chancellor  seemed  to  have  no  doubt  and  no 
difficulty.  He  said :  "  Speaking  generally,  one 
would  say  that  the  identity  of  a  religious  community 
described  as  a  Church  must  consist  in  the  unity  of 
its  doctrines.  Its  Creeds,  Confessions,  Formularies, 
Tests,  and  so  forth,  are  apparently  intended  to 
ensure  the  unity  of  the  faith  which  its  adherents 
profess,  and  certainly  among  all  Christian  Churches 
the  essential  idea  of  a  Creed  or  Confession  of  Faith 


AND  THE  THIRTY-NINE  ARTICLES  II 7 

appears  to  be  the  public  acknowledgment  of  such 
and  such  religious  views  as  the  bond  of  union  which 
binds  them  together  as  one  Christian  community." 
To  understand  this  matter  it  is  essential  to  dis- 
tinguish clearly  between  two  meanings  of  the  word 
"creed."  The  word  may  mean  an  opinion  or  set  of 
opinions  on  any  subject  whatsoever.  In  this  sense 
no  man  can  exist  without  a  creed.  He  must  have 
ideas  on  the  life  which  he  is  leading.  But  "  creed  " 
means  also  a  formula  of  religious  belief  embodied  in 
definite  words  intended  to  be  binding  on  religious 
communities.  It  is  in  this  last  sense  that  the  Lord 
Chancellor  uses  it.  And  it  may  be  affirmed  with 
certainty  that,  if  his  statement  is  to  hold,  then  there 
does  not  exist  a  Church  on  the  face  of  the  earth. 
The  early  Church  had  no  fixed  formula,  no  Creed, 
or  Confession,  or  Test,  and  therefore  it  has  no  right 
to  the  name  of  Church,  though  congregations  re- 
ceived that  name  from  the  days  of  St.  Paul.  Many 
Churches  of  the  present  day  are  in  the  same  pre- 
dicament as  the  early  Church.  The  Independents, 
for  instance,  have  no  fixed  formulas.  They  have 
creeds  in  the  first  sense  of  the  word,  and  quite 
definite  enough,  but  they  refuse  to  commit  them- 
selves to  an  exact  and  binding  statement  of  their 
belief,  except  such  as  each  one  makes  for  himself. 
Then  every  Church  has  lost  its  identity.  The  Roman 
Catholic  has  adopted  considerable  additions  to  its 
dogmas,  its  mode  of  thought  has  changed  with  the 


Il8     THE  WESTMINSTER  CONFESSION  OF  FAITH 

centuries,  as  Cardinal  Newman  and  M.  Loisy  have 
demonstrated,  and  its  present  attitude  to  many 
religious  questions  is  widely  different  from  what 
it  was  in  the  eighteenth  or  the  first  half  of  the 
nineteenth  century.  The  English  Church  has  com- 
pletely lost  its  identity.  Even  its  formulas  have 
changed  ;  and  its  mode  of  thought  and  attitude  to 
religious  questions  are  peculiar  to  the  present  age. 
Most  theologians,  moreover,  believe  that  a  Church 
ought  to  advance  with  the  times,  and  adapt  itself  to 
the  various  tendencies  and  discoveries  of  the  age. 
M.  Loisy  ^  has  pointed  this  out  with  great  emphasis : 
"  In  their  warfare  against  tradition,  the  most  en- 
lightened Protestant  theologians,  those  who,  like 
Herr  Harnack,  recognise  a  kind  of  relative  necessity 
in  the  Catholic  development,  argue  none  the  less 
eagerly  about  it,  as  though  it  were  not  evident  that 
the  desire  to  restore  Christianity  to  its  primitive 
form  and  organization  is  really  a  desire  to  condemn 
it  to  death,  and  as  if  change  were  not  the  natural 
condition  of  its  preservation  and  the  expression  of  its 
vitality.  They  are  less  exacting  for  themselves, 
when  concerned  to  justify  their  own  religious  con- 
victions, unlikely  as  they  are  to  be  confused  with  the 
Gospel  of  Jesus.  What  else  do  they  do  but  adapt 
the  Gospel  to  the  needs  of  their  special  consciences  ? 
The  Church  also,  from  the  beginning,  adapts  the 
Gospel  to  the  needs  of  the  men  she  addresses." 

^  The  Gospel  and  the  Church.     Translated  by  C.  Home  (1903). 


AND   THE  THIRTY-NINE  ARTICLES  II9 

Again  he  says  :  "  To  be  identical  with  the  religion 
of  Jesus,  the  Catholic  Church  has  no  more  need  to 
reproduce  exactly  the  forms  of  the  Galilean  gospel 
than  a  man  has  need  to  preserve  at  fifty  the  propor- 
tions, features,  and  manner  of  life  of  the  day  of  his 
birth,  in  order  to  be  the  same  individual.  The 
identity  of  a  man  is  not  ensured  by  making  him 
return  to  his  cradle." 

And  again  he  says  further  :  "  The  identity  of  the 
Church  or  of  the  man  is  not  determined  by  per- 
manent immobility  of  external  forms,  but  by  con- 
tinuity of  existence  and  consciousness  of  life  through 
the  perpetual  transformations  which  are  life's  con- 
dition and  manifestation." 

M.  Loisy's  opinions  are  shared  by  all  our  great 
thinkers  on  the  nature  and  destiny  of  the  Church  or 
of  a  Church.  And  if  the  English  law  is  opposed 
to  this,  then  there  is  plain  need  that  the  law  should 
be  altered.  But  even  if  we  were  to  grant  that  the 
Lord  Chancellor  were  right  in  his  opinion,  we  have 
still  to  discover  what  exactly  that  opinion  is  and 
what  is  its  application  to  the  case.  Is  it  a  formal 
and  authoritative  adherence  to  the  creed  that  is 
meant?  Then  in  this  case  the  Majority  Free 
Church  and  the.  United  Presbyterians  never  in 
General  Assembly  or  Synod  resolved  that  the  Con- 
fession of  Faith  was  not  their  creed,  and  the  United 
Free  Church  still  acknowledges  the  Confession  of 
Faith    as    its    creed.      Or   is   it   meant    that   every 


120     THE  WESTMINSTER  CONFESSION   OF  FAITH 

member  of  a  Church  must  not  only  acknowledge  the 
Confession  of  Faith  as  a  statement  of  his  own 
belief,  but  he  must  actually  believe  every  word  of 
it?  This  seems  to  be  the  interpretation  of  the 
law  on  which  the  five  judges  have  acted.  But  if 
this  be  the  right  interpretation  of  the  law,  then  it 
would  be  easy  to  prove  that  neither  the  United  Free 
Church  nor  the  Minority  Free  Church  have  any  title 
to  the  funds.  There  cannot  be  a  doubt  that  the 
persons  composing  these  Churches  have  all  changed 
their  opinions  in  regard  to  some  of  the  doctrines  of 
the  creed  through  the  overwhelming  influence  of  the 
progress  of  the  ages,  and  it  might  be  added  that 
there  is  the  greatest  probability  that  three-fourths 
of  these  persons  do  not  comprehend  some  of  the 
most  important  of  the  doctrines  laid  down  in  the 
Confession,  and  cannot  therefore  believe  them. 

The  five  judges  having  determined  that  complete 
belief  in  all  the  statements  made  in  the  Confession 
of  Faith,  in  the  exact  sense  in  which  a  lawyer  would 
interpret  the  words,  is  essential  to  the  identity  of 
the  Church  in  question,  proceeded  to  ascertain  the 
facts  in  regard  to  this  matter.  And  the  arguments 
for  denying  the  identity  of  the  Majority  Free 
Church  with  the  Free  Church  of  1843  and  of  1900 
were  two.  The  Majority  Free  Church,  it  was  said, 
had  abandoned  the  doctrine  of  Predestination  as 
set  forth  in  the  Confession,  and  because  of  union 
with  the  United  Presbyterians  they  had  abandoned 


AND  THE  THIRTY-NINE  ARTICLES  121 

the  doctrine  of  Establishment.  In  regard  to  the 
first,  it  was  the  Lord  Chancellor  that  argued  against 
the  United  Free  Church,  and  he  was  supported  only 
by  one  of  his  seven  colleagues  ;  his  other  colleagues 
would  not  follow  him  in  it — not  even  the  other  three 
of  the  five  who  voted  against  the  United  Free 
Church.  And  no  sooner  was  the  judgment  an- 
nounced than  prominent  members  of  the  Minority 
Free  Church  tried  to  emphasise  as  a  fact  that  they 
also  disagreed  with  the  Lord  Chancellor,  and  felt 
themselves  bound  to  proclaim  a  free  and  unlimited 
gospel,  the  obligation  being  in  no  way  impeded  by 
the  doctrine  of  election. 

The  only  question,  then,  in  dispute  was  the 
establishment  question.  It  is  needless  to  say  that 
this  is  not  a  legal  point.  It  is  a  question  of  facts  ; 
a  question  of  interpretation  and  of  history.  It  was 
viewed  from  two  points — (i)  The  five  judges  alleged 
that  the  United  Free  Church  had  abandoned  the 
doctrine  of  the  Confession  of  Faith  in  approving  of 
disestablishment.  We  have  already  seen  that  the 
Confession  of  Faith  contains  no  pronouncement  in 
regard  to  the  establishment  and  endowment  of 
churches.  But  it  is  extraordinary  that  legal  men 
should  have  used  such  an  argument.  The  Article  on 
which  the  argument  is  based  does  not  contain  the 
word  State  or  Parliament,  the  sole  power  which 
could  establish  and  endow  a  church,  and  it  does  not 
contain  the  words  "establish"  or  "endow,"  or  any 


122     THE  WESTMINSTER  CONFESSION   OF  FAITH 

reference  to  funds  and  financial  transactions.  One 
cannot  see  how  there  could  be  any  pronouncement 
on  establishment  and  endowment  without  the  words 
mentioned.  The  only  thing  on  which  the  five  judges 
could  base  their  argument  is  that  the  words  of  the 
Article  warranted  the  inference,  that  those  who 
adopted  the  Article  must  approve  of  the  policy  of 
establishment.  But  I  should  think  legal  minds  would 
at  once  refuse  to  base  argument  on  inferences,  unless 
these  were  irresistible  and  agreed  to  by  all,  and  he 
who  accepts  articles  of  a  creed  is  not  bound  to  believe 
or  assent  to  inferences  which  other  people  may  draw 
from  them.  Here  there  was  unquestionable  failure 
on  the  part  of  the  five  judges. 

The  second  point  of  view  was  the  intentions  of  the 
original  donors.  It  was  alleged  that  the  original 
donors  gave  their  contributions  in  the  belief  that  the 
Free  Church  was  never  to  give  up  the  opinion  that 
the  State  ought  to  endow  the  Church,  whether  it  did 
so  or  not.  It  seems  to  me  difficult  in  the  highest 
degree  to  believe  that  the  Scotch  people  would  see 
any  reason  for  giving  money  in  order  to  continue 
such  an  opinion.  The  Free  Church  had  resolved  to 
break  their  connexion  with  the  State,  or  had  broken 
it  when  the  contributions  were  made.  And  it  had 
broken  it  because  the  State  had  interfered  with  the 
religious  action  of  the  Church.  The  Church  had 
ma,de  up  its  mind  that  it  would  give  up  all  the  emolu- 
ments of  State  aid   in  order  that  it  might  not  be 


AND  THE  THIRTY-NINE  ARTICLES  1 23 

impeded  in  whatever  concerned  religion.  Is  it  con- 
ceivable that  people  who  had  made  the  greatest 
sacrifices  to  resist  the  State  would  contribute  money 
in  order  that  a  theoretical  opinion,  which  would  in  all 
probability  never  come  into  action,  might  be  propa- 
gated ?  The  Scotch  people  would  be  a  nation  of 
dreamers  if  they  had  done  such  a  thing,  and  volun- 
taries would  not  have  been  among  the  contributors 
if  such  an  idea  had  been  in  their  minds.  What 
proof  was  there  that  the  original  contributors  had 
been  so  completely  forgetful  of  themselves  as  to  do 
this?  The  only  or  the  principal  proof  was  that 
Dr.  Chalmers  had  announced  the  opinion  strongly 
in  his  address  as  Moderator,  and  that  the  General 
Assembly  had  approved  of  the  address.  There  is 
no  doubt  that  Dr.  Chalmers  was  strongly  of  opinion 
that  there  ought  to  be  a  connexion  between  Church 
and  State,  if  that  connexion  could  be  one  honourable 
to  the  Church.  He  had  been  arguing  strenuously  for 
this  for  years.  And  he  thought  that  the  State's 
help  was  requisite  if  Christianity  was  to  reach  the 
masses.  There  is  no  doubt  that  nearly  all,  probably 
all,  the  members  of  the  Assembly  were  of  this 
opinion.  But  the  question  is  whether  he  and  they 
deemed  it  an  opinion  essential  to  one's  having  con- 
nexion with  the  Church  or  to  carrying  on  the  work 
of  the  Church.  That  could  not  be  the  case.  There 
are  many  opinions  in  Dr.  Chalmers's  Moderator's 
Address.     Only  some  of  them  are  important.     Ap- 


124     THE  WESTMINSTER  CONFESSION  OF  FAITH 

proval  of  the  address  did  not  imply  that  the  Assembly 
approved  of  all  the  opinions,  or  that  they  thought  all 
the  opinions  of  equal  importance.  And  it  seems  to 
me  a  misreading  of  Dr.  Chalmers's  character  to  sup- 
pose that  he  laid  much  stress  on  the  opinion  in 
question  even  at  the  time  he  spoke,  and  especially 
in  his  calmer  hours.  His  words  show  that  while  he 
was  emphatic  on  the  point,  he  was  conscious  that  it 
was  of  secondary  importance.  The  main  point  which 
he  urges  is  the  opinion  that  the  ecclesiastical  ought 
not  to  be  subjected  to  the  civil  power  in  things 
spiritual,  that  the  Church  had  a  government  of  her 
own,  and  within  the  proper  sphere  of  that  govern- 
ment a  certain  inherent  liberty  which,  save  by  perse- 
cution, could  not  be  violated.  And  when  he  comes 
to  the  question  of  establishment,  "  the  authority  of 
Christ  over  the  kings  and  governments  of  earth  and 
the  counterpart  duty  of  these  governments,"  he  takes 
care,  even  in  the  impetuous  defence  of  his  own 
previous  exertions  and  his  remembrance  of  the  ex- 
tremely bitter  controversies  in  which  he  had  been 
engaged,  to  say:  "This  may  be  termed  a  less  principle 
than  the  other,  of  inferior  consideration  in  itself  and 
inferior  consequence  to  the  vital  or  spiritual  well- 
being  of  Christ's  Church  upon  earth."  And  he  says 
about  those  who  might  differ  from  him :  "  They 
might  be  men  with  whom  we  differ  and  yet  with 
whom  we  can  agree  to  differ ;  they  might  be  coadju- 
tors in  the  great  work  of  evangelising  the  people  of 


AND   THE   THIRTY-NINE   ARTICLES  1 25 

our  land — brethren  with  whom  we  can  hold  sweet  and 
profitable  counsel  on  the  capita  fidei  or  weightier 
matters  of  the  law,  having  one  faith  and  one  Lord 
and  one  baptism."  Here  Dr.  Chalmers  pronounces 
most  emphatically  that  the  principle  of  establishment 
was  not  one  of  the  capita  fidei,  one  of  the  essential 
doctrines  of  a  church.  And  his  subsequent  utter- 
ances were  all  in  harmony  with  this  exposition  of  the 
relative  importance  of  beliefs.  The  true  Dr.  Chalmers 
comes  out  in  the  words  with  which  he  introduced 
Dr.  Merle  D'Aubigne  to  the  General  Assembly  in 
1845:  "Among  the  great  majority  of  Evangelical 
Dissenters  in  this  country,  I  am  not  aware  of  any 
topics  of  difference  which  I  do  not  regard  as  so 
many  men  of  straw ;  and  I  shall  be  exceedingly 
delighted  if  these  gentlemen  get  the  heads  of  the 
various  denominations  to  meet  together  and  consent 
to  make  a  bonfire  of  them."^  It  is  inconceivable, 
therefore,  that  Dr.  Chalmers  would  ask  anyone  to 
give  money  to  continue  an  inoperative  opinion  that 
the  State  should  support  the  Church,  as  it  was  equally 
inconceivable  that  Scotch  people  would  give  a  penny 
to  conserve  such  an  opinion. 

The  Scotch  people  are  a  practical  people,  and 
Dr.  Chalmers  was  eminently  a  practical  man.  In 
asking  money  from  the  Scotch  people  he  laid  before 
them  a  definite  object,  and  this  object   was  plainly 

^  The  Later  ^'■Church  and  State'"  Opinions  of  Dr.  Chalmers,  by 
S.  Williamson,  M.P.     1891. 


126     THE  WESTMINSTER  CONFESSION   OF  FAITH 

put  before  the  General  Assembly  in  the  speech 
which  he  delivered  at  the  close  of  the  Assembly  of 
1843.^  It  was  printed  along  with  the  speech  in  which 
reference  is  made  to  voluntaryism.  In  the  later 
speech  not  a  word  is  said  about  the  duty  of  the 
State  to  support  the  Church.  Throughout  he  con- 
tends only  for  one  principle,  the  liberty  of  the 
Church  to  direct  its  own  affairs,  and  he  contends 
for  this  principle  because  the  carrying  out  of  it  is 
necessary  for  what  was  the  real  object  of  the  trust, 
namely,  to  preach  the  gospel  to  all.  A  few  extracts 
will  show  this.  The  speech  begins  with  the  follow- 
ing words  : — "  The  deliberations,"  he  says,  "for  I  can- 
not call  them  the  debates,  of  the  Assembly,  are  now 
terminated.  We  have  reason  to  bless  God  for  a 
harmony  that  has  been  quite  marvellous.  Let  us 
rejoice  in  it  as  a  token  for  good  ;  and  may  He  who 
turneth  the  spirits  of  men  whithersoever  He  will, 
turn  this  common  enthusiasm  on  behalf  of  great  and 
high  objects,  into  an  instrument  for  the  growth  of 
charity  and  cordial  affection  among  all  Christians, 
that  they  may  at  length  rally  around  one  and  the 
same  standard,  and  go  forth  with  one  heart  and  one 
hand  on  the  mighty  enterprise  of  spreading  the 
gospel  everywhere,  and  achieving,  both  at  home  and 
abroad,  the  further  triumphs  of  our  faith." 

^  The  Addresses  delivered  at  the  commencement  of  the  First 
General  Assembly  of  the  Free  Church  of  Scotland  by  Thomas 
Chalmers,  D.D.,  LL.D.  Printed  from  Dr.  Chalmers's  manuscript,  Edin- 
burgh,  1843. 


AND  THE  THIRTY-NINE  ARTICLES  1 27 

Referring  to  the  Established  Church  constituted 
by  the  remanent  members,  he  says :  "  But,  then,  in 
regard  to  principles — the  same  gospel — the  gospel 
pre-eminently  of  truth,  and  of  truth  unswerving,  and 
by  which  we  are  laid  under  the  duty  of  preaching  its 
doctrines  to  every  creature  under  heaven — this  said 
gospel  tells  of  our  imperative  obligation  to  declare 
the  whole  counsel  of  God,  and  keep  back  nothing 
from  the  view  of  others  which  possesses  a  sacred  or 
religious  importance  in  our  own  eyes.  Let  us  come 
at  once,  then,  to  the  application.  That  one  principle 
we  must  surely  deem  to  be  of  some  importance,  and 
must  hold  in  some  estimation,  for  which,  rather  than 
renounce  it,  we  have  given  up  our  all.  Even  though, 
through  our  keeping  by  this  principle,  and  proclaim- 
ing it  everywhere,  the  Scottish  Establishment,  now 
the  stronghold  of  that  Erastianism  which  has  driven 
us  from  its  bowers,  should  be  laid  prostrate  in  the 
dust,  and  along  with  it  the  subsistence  of  all  its 
dependent  families — surely  you  cannot  expect  that 
the  principle  which  we  could  not  give  up  for  the  sake 
of  our  own  livings,  we  must  now  give  up  and  cease 
to  act  upon  for  the  sake  of  the  livings  of  other 
people." 

And  further  on  he  says  :  "  Now,  the  establishment 
of  a  pure  gospel  throughout  Scotland  in  all  its  prin- 
ciples, and  the  consequent  overthrow  of  all  its  op- 
posing errors — that  is  our  object,  that  is  our  landing- 
place.     In  the  prosecution  of  this  object  hitherto  we 


128     THE  WESTMINSTER   CONFESSION   OF  FAITH 

have  been  driven  from  our  offices  and  our  homes — 
that  is  but  the  incidental  accompaniment ;  and  no 
one  will  say,  surely,  it  was  for  the  sake  of  this  that 
we  have  maintained  the  independence  of  the  Church 
in  things  spiritual.  Now,  what  we  have  held  it  our 
duty  to  maintain,  we  shall  still  hold  it  our  duty  to 
propagate ;  and  let  us  suppose  it  as  one  of  the  col- 
lateral effects  that  the  establishment  is  demolished 
and  that  all  its  remanent  clergy  are  also  driven 
from  their  offices  and  their  houses.  Most  assuredly 
it  is  as  little  for  the  sake  of  such  an  infliction  upon 
their  families  as  it  has  been  for  the  sake  of  an  inflic- 
tion upon  ours  that  we  have  either  maintained  the 
doctrine  of  the  Church's  liberties  hitherto  or  will 
henceforth  continue  to  proclaim  it  everywhere." 

Dr.  Chalmers,  as  was  his  wont,  reiterates  the  idea; 
and  the  object  of  the  trust,  as  far  as  he  was  con- 
cerned and  those  who  agreed  with  him,  was  to  secure 
"  the  labours  of  a  free  and  extended  and  well-sup- 
ported ministry  of  the  gospel,"  and  thus  spread  the 
knowledge  of  the  gospel  over  the  length  and  breadth 
of  the  land. 

This  was  the  conception  of  the  movement  inside 
the  Free  Church,  and  the  same  conception  prevailed 
outside.  One  proof  of  this  may  be  mentioned.  A 
sermon  was  published  in  1844  "On  the  Claims  of 
the  Free  Church  of  Scotland  to  the  Sympathy  and 
Assistance  of  American  Christians,"  by  Thomas 
Smyth,  D.D.,  minister  of  the  Presbyterian  Church, 


AND   THE   THIRTY-NINE  ARTICLES  1 29 

Charleston,  South  Carolina,  and  on  the  basis  of  it  a 
collection  was  made.  Mr.  Smyth  prints  the  names 
of  the  collectors,  the  Honourable  the  Mayor  heading 
the  list,  and  states  that  "  these  collectors,  who  all 
cheerfully  consented  to  act,  are  members  of  ten  dif- 
ferent churches  in  this  city,  and  of  seven  denomina- 
tions." Probably  these  seven  denominations  did  not 
hold  the  opinion  that  the  State  ought  to  endow 
churches,  and  certainly  would  not  have  contributed 
to  propagate  such  an  opinion. 

The  five  lords  seem  to  me,  therefore,  wrong  in 
their  conclusion  as  to  what  the  purposes  of  the  trust 
were,  if  they  "  are  to  be  ascertained  by  what  the 
donors  of  the  trust  funds  thought  about  it,  or  what 
we  are  constrained  to  infer  would  be  their  views  if  it 
were  possible  to  consult  them."  There  ought  to  be 
no  doubt  now  what  the  original  donors  thought  about 
the  matter.  Since  the  trial  abundant  evidence  of 
every  kind  has  turned  up.  The  opinions  of  all  the 
great  leaders  of  the  Disruption  have  been  collected 
and  set  forth  by  Mr.  Hector  MacPherson  in  his 
Scottish  Church  Crisis  (1904),  The  actual  circular 
asking  for  subscriptions  has  been  unearthed,  and 
there  is  not  a  word  about  the  establishment  principle 
in  it.  And  I  think  the  belief  must  be  general  that 
Dr.  Chalmers  and  his  colleagues  would  have  de- 
nounced the  decision  of  the  five  judges  as  based  on 
an  entire  misapprehension  of  the  object  and  motives 
of  their  action  at  the  time  of  the  Disruption.     The 


130     THE  WESTMINSTER  CONFESSION   OF  FAITH 

one  motive  which  they  put  prominently  forward  is 
the  acquisition  of  the  right  for  their  Church  to  deal 
with  religious  affairs  as  they  should  deem  most 
advantageous  for  the  spread  of  the  gospel.  And  it 
is  in  the  exercise  of  this  right  that  the  Majority  Free 
Church  changed  its  mind  in  regard  to  the  relations 
between  Church  and  State.  The  members  of  it 
naturally  thought  that  the  State  ought  to  help  the 
Church  in  its  efforts  to  extend  civilisation  ;  but  when 
they  found  that  freedom  from  State  control  drew 
out  an  extraordinary  measure  of  liberality,  they 
came  to  the  conclusion  that  the  Church  was  more 
likely  to  effect  its  object  by  appealing  to  the  hearts 
and  consciences  of  the  people,  and  that  personal 
interest  in  the  evangelisation  of  the  country,  shown 
by  personal  self-denial,  was  a  better  way  to  win  over 
the  masses  to  Christ  than  by  using  national  funds 
under  unfavourable  conditions. 

The  decision  of  the  five  lords  rests  entirely  on 
two  questions.  First,  Did  the  Majority  Free  Church 
abandon  any  doctrine  contained  in  the  Confession  of 
Faith  ?  There  is  no  conclusive  proof  that  it  did,  but 
the  evidence  goes  all  the  other  way.  Second,  Did 
the  donors  of  the  funds  in  question  give  them  on 
condition  that  the  trustees  shall  adhere  to  the  estab- 
lishment principle?  Here  again  there  is  no  evidence. 
At  best  there  is  nothing  but  some  statements  which 
do  not  warrant  the  inference,  and  many  clear  and 
positive  statements  which  warrant  an  opposite  infer- 
ence. 


AND   THE  THIRTY-NINE   ARTICLES  131 

Out  of  this  review  of  the  case  a  serious  question 
arises  as  to  the  future  of  Free  Churches.  The 
Majority  Free  Church  asked  the  best  legal  opinion 
that  could  be  got  in  regard  to  the  union  which  they 
intended  to  form  with  the  United  Presbyterian 
Church  and  its  effect  on  the  financial  position  of 
both  Churches,  and  they  were  guided  in  all  their 
actions  by  men  who  are  regarded  as  the  soundest 
lawyers.  The  four  Scotch  judges  who  were  inti- 
mately acquainted  with  the  facts  of  the  case  agreed 
with  the  opinions  of  the  advising  lawyers.  And 
three  out  of  the  eight  judges  who  sat  on  the  case 
from  the  House  of  Lords  were  also  convinced  that 
the  advising  lawyers  were  right.  The  two  House  of 
Lords  judges  who  gave  their  decision  to  this  effect 
showed  also  a  thorough  knowledge  of  the  history 
and  aims  of  the  Scotch  Churches  concerned.  But 
five  judges  decided  that  the  Scotch  advising  lawyers 
were  wrong,  that  the  four  Scotch  judges  were  wrong, 
and  that  the  three  House  of  Lords  judges  were 
wrong.  Here  is  complete  confusion.  How  can  one 
trust  any  legal  opinion  after  this?  What  security 
can  Free  Churches  obtain  after  this  that  they  may 
not  be  deprived  of  institutions  which  their  own 
money  has  set  up?  In  fact,  the  feeling  naturally 
arises  that  there  is  no  certainty  in  law,  that  our  laws 
are  so  bad  that  they  cannot  be  clearly  interpreted, 
and  that  it  is  a  mere  chance  as  to  what  legal  decisions 
may   be   pronounced.     Something   must   be   wrong 


132     THE  WESTMINSTER  CONFESSION  OF  FAITH 

here.  In  these  circumstances  one  naturally  asks 
whether  the  constitution  of  the  legal  House  of  Lords 
has  not  something  very  far  wrong  in  it.  And  one 
cannot  help  thinking  that  prejudices  had  a  share  in 
the  conclusions  to  which  the  five  judges  came. 

First  they  seem  to  have  not  been  able  to  adhere 
strictly  to  the  idea  of  trust.  The  idea  of  a  Church 
and  a  Church  established  by  law  was  constantly 
floating  before  them,  and  they  applied  to  a  Church 
which  had  fought  out  its  freedom  ideas  which  belong 
to  a  Church  which  has  entered  into  a  compact  with 
the  State  and  is  bound  by  Acts  of  Parliament. 

But,  secondly,  and  much  more  palpably,  their  atti- 
tude to  the  question  of  establishment  was  clearly  a 
political  attitude.  That  there  ought  to  be  an  Estab- 
lished Church  is  one  of  the  most  important  Articles 
of  the  Conservative  creed.  It  stands  in  the  very 
front  rank  of  the  Conservative  programme,  and  the 
five  judges  had  evidently  taken  with  them  the  atti- 
tude of  the  question  as  a  party  question  into  the 
consideration  of  the  question  as  an  article  of  a 
Church's  position.  Now  in  a  Church  the  opinion  is 
of  no  validity  as  a  doctrine.  In  none  of  the  Churches 
of  Scottish  origin  had  it  any  prominent  place.  A 
man  might  hold  pronounced  opinions  on  the  great 
advantage  which  State  connexion  might  give  to  the 
spread  of  the  gospel  and  yet  be  a  member  of  a 
dissenting  Church.  And  in  the  Established  Church 
it  was  not  unusual  to  find  men  who  believed  that 


AND  THE  THIRTY-NINE  ARTICLES  1 33 

disestablishment  might  be  advantageous  to  the  com- 
munity. The  Majority  Free  Church  came  to  believe 
that  the  connexion  of  the  State  with  the  Church 
was  unnecessary,  and  that  the  spontaneous  liberality 
of  its  members  was  a  greater  aid  and  a  surer  method 
of  spreading  the  gospel.  But  no  obligation  was 
laid  on  its  ministers  or  members  to  agree  to  this, 
and  a  large  number  still  clung  to  the  idea  of  a  con- 
nexion with  the  State.  The  United  Presbyterian 
Church's  opinion  on  the  matter  was  almost  ex- 
clusively political,  for  it  was  that  it  was  not  fair  to 
spend  money  belonging  to  the  whole  nation  on  an 
ecclesiastical  institution  which  represented  only 
about  a  half  of  the  nation,  and  which  ought  to  be 
well  able  to  support  its  own  institutions  without  aid 
from  these  national  funds.  But  it  is  different  with 
the  Conservative  party.  To  be  a  member  of  it  one 
is  expected  to  stand  up  for  the  maintenance  of  an 
established  and  endowed  Church.  And  this  Con- 
servative belief,  again  and  again  urged  by  some  of 
the  five  judges  in  their  political  agitations  and 
speeches,  seems  unconsciously  to  have  biassed  their 
decisions  in  a  matter  which  ought  to  have  had  no 
concern  with  politics.  And  this  is  not  the  only  case. 
A  feeling  prevails  that  some  of  the  judges  of  the 
House  of  Lords  have  been  unconsciously  biassed  in 
their  judicial  judgments  by  their  political  preposses- 
sions. The  mode  of  their  election  to  their  high 
offices  tends  to  strengthen  this  idea.    They  are  made 


134     THE  WESTMINSTER   CONFESSION   OF  FAITH 

judges  not  on  account  of  their  great  legal  knowledge 
and  skill,  but  because  they  have  been  keen  and 
successful  partisans  of  a  political  party.  The  con- 
sequence of  this  is  that  the  uncertainties  of  law 
bulk  largely  in  the  public  mind.  Men  who  are  at  the 
present  time  entrusted  with  the  preparation  of  bills 
do  not  seem  to  be  able  or  willing  to  make  laws  in 
which  the  meaning  of  their  provisions  is  clearly  ex- 
pressed. The  legal  officials  who  ought  to  be  able  to 
explain  them  differ  widely  from  each  other  in  their 
explanations,  and  it  is  a  mere  chance  what  may  be 
the  decision  of  the  final  court  of  appeal.  The  career 
of  the  judge  ought  therefore  from  the  commencement 
to  be  kept  clear  from  politics,  and  the  two  careers — 
that  of  judge  and  that  of  politician — should  be 
separated  from  the  beginning.  It  would  also  be  a 
great  advantage  if  the  career  of  the  advocate  should 
be  separated  from  that  of  the  judge.  The  advocate 
is  trained  by  practice  to  see  only  one  side  with 
emphasis,  and  when  he  becomes  a  judge  he  is  apt  to 
continue  this  attitude  of  mind  and  view  Oi^.e  of  the 
parties  in  the  case  as  his  clients.  But  whatever  may 
be  the  remedies,  it  is  evident  that  there  is  much 
need  of  some  remedy  if  the  public  are  to  have  con- 
fidence in  our  legal  administration. 

Much  stress  has  been  laid  on  the  fact  that  the  de- 
cision of  the  House  of  Lords  is  final.  But  this  finality 
simply  means  that  the  parties  must  submit  to  the 
decision  until  some  means  is  discovered  of  altering  it. 


AND   THE   THIRTY-NINE  ARTICLES  135 

Legal  ingenuity  is  always  clever  enough  at  finding 
out  some  loophole.  New  evidence  may  turn  up ; 
new  issues  may  be  laid  before  new  judges  involving 
on  a  wider  plane  the  old  issues.  And  it  is  allowed  on 
all  hands  that  no  nation  should  permit  injustice  to 
continue,  whatever  may  be  the  legal  basis  for  it. 
Measures  must  be  taken  to  do  what  is  right,  what- 
ever may  happen.  In  this  case  we  have  a  repetition 
of  what  took  place  at  the  Disruption.  If  the  states- 
men who  caused  the  Disruption  had  known  the 
Scottish  character  and  history,  the  Disruption  would 
never  have  taken  place.  And  when  Parliament 
afterwards  yielded  to  the  arguments  put  forward  at 
the  Disruption,  it  was  too  late,  and  probably  the 
breach  between  the  Churches  was  then  not  narrowed 
but  widened  by  the  action  of  Parliament.  The  five 
judges  appear  to  me  to  have  made  the  same  mis- 
take as  the  statesmen  of  1843.  They  have  shown 
ignorance  of  Scotch  history  and  Scotch  institutions 
in  dealing  with  the  matters  of  fact  on  which  the 
whole  case  hinged. 


CHAPTER   VII 

THE  CREED   OF  THE   MINORITY   FREE 
CHURCH 

Sec.  I. —the  PEOPLE 
It  is  very  difficult  to  get  an  exact  idea  of  what 
the  Minority  Free  Church  believes.  In  the  Scottish 
Church  and  University  Almanac^  1905.  a  list  of 
the  Minority  Free  Church  ministers  is  supplied 
by  Mr.  J.  Hay  Thorburn,  and  may  therefore  be 
trusted  as  correct.  Their  number  is  thirty-three. 
Five  of  these  put  M.  A.  after  their  names.  The  others 
have  no  degree  of  any  kind.  Not  one  of  them  has 
the  degree  of  B.D,,  the  degree  which  is  gained  by  the 
distinguished  divinity  students  of  our  Scottish  Uni- 
versities. As  far  as  I  can  find  out,  no  one  of  the 
ministers  has  given  an  exposition  of  the  doctrines  of 
their  Church,  or  has  written  any  work  of  any  kind. 
And  even  if  we  knew  what  these  ministers  believed, 
the  knowledge  would  not  probably  enable  us  to 
know  what  the  people  of  the  Church  believed — for 
in  past  times  the  lay  element  has  been  the  more 
powerful  force  in  determining  the  character  of  the 
Church. 

136 


THE   THIRTY-NINE  ARTICLES  1 37 

Some  information  might  be  gathered  from  the 
trial,  but  the  testimony  of  counsel  would  not  count 
for  much,  for  the  advocates  of  the  Minority  Free 
Church  simply,  as  it  was  their  duty  to  do,  chose  such 
points  as  might  serve  to  gain  a  victory,  and  some 
of  these  doctrinal  arguments  were  repudiated  by 
prominent  members  of  the  Church  after  the  decision 
was  made  known. 

We  must  therefore  obtain  our  idea  of  the  religious 
attitude  and  beliefs  of  the  Church  from  what  we 
have  seen  and  heard,  and  from  those  who  have  had 
a  like  experience. 

The  notable  feature  about  the  Minority  Free 
Church  is  that  it  consists  almost  exclusively  of  High- 
landers. There  are  a  few  Lovvlanders  that  sympathise 
deeply  with  them,  and  hold  the  same  opinions  as  they 
do  on  most  points.  They  are  remnants  of  bodies 
that  were  united  with  the  Majority  Free  Church 
— United  Original  Seceders,  Reformed  Presbyterian 
Church  of  Scotland  and  Free  Presbyterian  Church 
of  Scotland.  They  are  ardent  admirers  of  the 
Covenanters,  and  hold  that  the  religious  ideas  and 
practices  of  the  olden  times  should  be  strictly 
adhered  to.  But  they  are  regarded  as  relics  of 
bygone  times,  entirely  out  of  harmony  with  the 
spirit  of  the  present  age.  They  have  been  left  in 
the  wilderness  because  they  have  fallen  out  of  the 
marching  ranks  of  intellectual  humanity. 

It  is  somewhat   different  with   the    Highlanders. 


138     THE   WESTMINSTER   CONFESSION   OF  FAITH 

In  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century  nearly 
all  the  vigorous  poor  population  of  the  Highlands 
were  removed  from  their  hills.  They  went  to  Canada, 
to  the  United  States,  and  to  the  large  cities  of  Scot- 
land and  England,  and  in  all  these  places  expelled 
Celts  have  occupied  high  and  influential  positions,  and 
have  done  excellent  service  to  their  adopted  countries. 
There  remained  behind  a  sluggish  people  opposed 
to  all  modern  improvements.  In  the  cultivation  of 
the  land  they  clung  to  their  ancestral  implement, 
the  caschrom,  principally  made  of  wood  and  used 
by  the  hand,  and  it  was  with  the  utmost  difficulty 
that  they  were  persuaded  to  take  to  the  modern 
plough.  They  were  unwilling  to  adopt  new  methods 
in  every  other  line  of  labour  or  trade.  They  were 
equally  conservative  in  their  religion.  They  adhered 
to  the  beliefs  and  forms  of  worship  which  had  pre- 
vailed from  covenanting  times.  They  had  been 
deeply  impressed  by  the  Puritan  movement.  They 
regarded  the  Sabbath  with  peculiar  sacredness. 
They  believed  that  it  was  not  lawful  to  shave  on 
that  day,  or  cook,  or  take  a  walk,  or  speak  or  think 
their  own  thoughts.  They  deemed  it  wrong  to  read 
any  secular  book.  They  must  read  only  the  Bible  and 
some  religious  works.  They  knew  little  of  the  New 
Testament,  and  had  no  great  taste  for  it.  They  were 
steeped  in  the  atmosphere  of  Jewish  thought.  Their 
religion  was  closely  akin  to  that  of  Kruger  and  his 
Boers,     They  had  a  strong  conviction  that  the  wrath 


AND   THE  THIRTY-NINE  ARTICLES  1 39 

of  God  rested  on  those  who  differed  from  them,  and 
they  had  no  hesitation  in  employing  brute  force  to 
carry  out  that  wrath.  At  the  same  time,  they  saw 
endless  visions  and  dreamed  many  dreams  which 
they  believed  were  inspired  by  heaven.  Some  of 
them  could  foretell  the  future.  In  these  visions  the 
Virgin  Mary  did  not  present  herself  as  she  does 
regularly  in  Roman  Catholic  countries.  The  saints 
of  the  early  Church  di'^  not  come  near  them.  I 
doubt  if  Christ  ever  made  a  visible  appearance  to 
them.  But  they  saw  the  Devil  continually.  He 
appeared  to  various  members  of  the  community  in 
widely  separate  districts  at  one  and  the  same  time. 
He  frightened  them  by  unearthly  noises,  made  heaps 
of  stones  rattle,  blasted  their  fields  at  the  instigation 
of  witches,  and  was  ever  present  with  them  disturb- 
ing their  devotions  and  making  mischief  in  one 
form  or  another.  And,  as  might  be  expected  from 
their  circumstances,  their  religion  took  a  gloomy 
turn.  Their  singing  of  the  psalms  was  a  wail.  They 
did  not  partake  of  the  sacrament  till  a  good  old  age, 
when  they  thought  that  death  could  not  be  far  off. 

When  the  Disruption  of  1843  took  place  they 
nearly  all  left  the  Established  Church.  They  stoned 
those  who  ventured  to  go  on  Sundays  to  the  parish 
churches.  They  regarded  these  places  as  the  haunts 
of  the  Devil.  One  of  their  ablest  ministers  de- 
scribed the  Established  Church  as  "  a  Christ-denying, 
God-dishonouring,  and  soul-destroying  Church,"  and 


I40     THE  WESTMINSTER  CONFESSION   OF  FAITH 

similar  language  was  used  throughout  the  parishes 
of  the  Highlands.  Those  who  remained  within  the 
Establishment  attributed  the  defection  of  the  High- 
landers to  their  gross  ignorance.  The  Established 
minister  of  Golspie  thus  explained  the  event : — ^ 

"  It  must,  however,  be  admitted  that,  in  common 
with  a  large  proportion  of  their  countrymen,  the 
religion  of  many  of  the  native  population  of  the 
lower  class  is  not  without  serious  and  inveterate 
errors.  Christian  conversion,  in  their  view,  essentially 
consists,  not  in  the  forsaking  of  wicked  ways  and 
unrighteous  thoughts,  and  in  returning  from  these 
to  the  Lord,  but  in  another  sort  of  change  not 
distinctly  connected  with  a  moral  life.  A  set  of 
illiterate,  fanatical,  and  disorderly,  self-appointed 
teachers  of  religion  have,  by  their  wild  and  mystical 
rhapsodies,  acquired  a  baneful  ascendant  over  the 
ignorant  minds  of  the  lower  orders  of  the  people 
not  only  in  this  county,  but  in  other  parts  of  the 
Highlands.  In  the  mouths  of  these  teachers  prayer 
is  irreverently  perverted  into  mere  discussion,  vir- 
tually addressed,  not  to  God,  but  to  the  hearers,  and 
frequently  degenerates  into  bitter  personalities  and 
invectives.  By  these  deluding  and  often  deluded 
persons  the  metaphorical  parts  of  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures are  received  and  taught  in  the  literal  sense, 
and   the  plainest  parts  are  very  often  allegorised. 

^  Sutherland  and  the  Sutherlanders :  Their  Religious  and  Social 
Condition.     Edinburgh.     1S44,  p.  12. 


AND  THE   THIRTY-NINE  ARTICLES  I4I 

Not  unfrequently  the  Scriptures  are  considered  as 
a  mere  secondary  thing  of  little  avail ;  and  that 
pastor  who  studies  them  closely  and  critically,  and 
expounds  them  in  their  true  sense,  is  regarded  as  if 
he  were  dealing  with  occult  and  unhallowed  sciences." 

The  same  writer,  in  alluding  to  the  comparatively 
small  number  of  communicants  in  so  large  a  popula- 
tion (only  70  out  of  1,149),  gives  the  following  account 
of  it  :— 

"  The  chief  cause  of  it  is,  that  the  views  generally 
entertained  by  the  lower  classes  of  the  nature  of  the 
Lord's  Supper  are  inveterately  superstitious.  Very 
many  of  those,  who  are  not  only  decent  in  their  lives, 
but  even  religious,  are  laid  grey-headed  in  their 
graves  without  having  once  engaged  in  the  Christian 
duty  of  the  Lord's  Supper.  Where  the  population 
of  many  parishes,  consisting  of  several  thousands 
are  assembled  in  one  parish,  it  is  evident,  indeed, 
that,  with  other  evils,  there  cannot  be  the  due  propor- 
tion of  communicants.  On  some  occasions,  too,  the 
strange  anomaly  exists  in  these  parts  of  many  of 
the  illiterate  laity  being  permitted  to  address  those 
large  assemblages  of  people  who  but  too  generally 
regard  their  doctrines  as  the  dictates  of  inspiration." 

The  minister  of  Golspie  describes  accurately  the 
religious  sentiments  of  the  Highlanders,  but  he  is 
altogether  unfair  to  the  leaders  who  were  honest. 
God-fearing  men,  intent  on  benefiting  their  fellow- 
elects  and  sympathising  deeply  with  the  sorrows  and 


142     THE   WESTMINSTER   CONFESSION   OF  FAITH 

sufferings  of  their  fellow-countrymen.  They  held 
strong  democratic  opinions.  Probably  the  Lord 
Chancellor  is  the  first  among  peers  that  has  had  the 
high  honour  of  being  blessed  by  them. 

After   the   Disruption,   strong   progressive   forces 
arose  within  the  Free  Church.    Dr.  Chalmers  himself 
was  one  of  these.     He  claimed  that  his  Church  was 
free  in  religious  matters.     He  had   the   daring  to 
lecture  on  geology  while  he  was  at  the  University 
of  St.  Andrews.     Liberal  articles  and  expositions  of 
German   theology   appeared    in   the   North  British 
Review.     He  welcomed  them,  but  he  regretted  that 
he  was  too  old  to  follow  the  trains  of  thought  and 
inquiry  suggested  by  them.     The  progress  went  on 
till  the  union  with  the  United  Presbyterians.     The 
New  College  was  the  best-equipped  divinity  hall  in 
Scotland,  and  many  of  its  professors  have  taken  a 
prominent  part  in  investigations  into  the  history  of 
the  Old  and  New  Testaments  and  in  cognate  subjects. 
This  forward  movement  created  a  split  among  the 
Highlanders.     A   goodly   proportion   of  those  who 
remained  in  the  Highlands  and  spoke  and  understood 
only  Gaelic,  refused  to  move.     Their  kinsmen  in  the 
colonies,  the  United  States,  and  in  our  great  cities 
have  done  splendid  work  in  theological  science  and 
literature,  and  the  names  of  Mackay,  Macpherson, 
and  Mcintosh,  and  other  Celtic  names  occupy  dis- 
tinguished positions  among  contributors  to  theologi- 
cal inquiry.    But  a  large  number  of  the  people  in  the 


AND  THE  THIRTY-NINE  ARTICLES  I43 

old  homes  have  remained  stubborn  and  immovable. 
They  held,  for  instance,  that  the  science  of  geology 
was  opposed  to  the  account  of  creation  in  Genesis, 
and  they  therefore  denounced  all  geologists  as  hereti- 
cal and  infidel.  I  once  asked  Mr.  Kennedy,  an  ex- 
cellent geologist,  who  was  for  a  long  time  minister 
of  Dornoch,  why  he  did  not  broach  the  subject  to 
his  congregation.  He  replied  :  "  My  congregation 
would  stone  me  if  I  ventured  to  whisper  such  a 
thing  as  geology."  Hugh  Miller's  geological  studies 
brought  on  him  the  wildest  abuse  in  his  native  town 
and  county.  Mr.  Carnegie  has  made  an  interesting 
statement  on  this  matter  in  his  address  delivered  at 
the  Dedication  of  the  Hugh  Miller  Institute  : — 

"  You  all  know  the  excitement  caused  by  the  Old 
Red  Sandstone — how  vehemently  your  gifted  son  was 
abused.  His  orthodoxy  was  assailed  by  the  clergy 
and  churchmen,  especially  in  the  Highlands ;  his 
books  were  denounced  and  excluded  from  many 
homes  as  atheistical.  Let  me  tell  you  of  an  incident 
in  my  own  experience,  which  vividly  reveals  the 
alarm  he  aroused.  Three  years  ago  we  were  honoured 
by  a  visit  at  Skibo  from  the  Speaker  of  the  House  of 
Congress  in  Washington,  Colonel  Henderson.  Speak- 
ing of  the  various  points  of  interest  around  Skibo, 
Cromarty  was  mentioned.  Immediately  he  asked  : 
'Where  Hugh  Miller  was  born,  he  who  wrote  the 
Old  Red  Sandstone  ?  Could  you  take  me  there  ? 
I  wish  to  make  a  pilgrimage  to  his  grave.     He  was 


144     THE  WESTMINSTER  CONFESSION  OF  FAITH 

the  cause  of  my  brother  and  myself  leaving  our 
father's  house.  My  dear  old  father  regarded  his 
books  as  heretical,  and  therefore  the  work  of  Satan, 
and  prohibited  us  from  reading  them.  To  this  we 
said  we  could  not  agree,  and  when  my  father  found, 
to  his  great  grief,  that  his  two  boys  believed  what 
Hugh  Miller  had  written,  we  had  to  leave  our  home. 
His  roof  should  cover  no  doubters  of  the  Mosaic 
record.  He  allowed  us  to  remain  away  for  two 
years,  and  then  we  received  a  letter  entreating  us  to 
return,  and  saying  that  he  had  been  'wrong,  all 
wrong.  Come  back  and  read  Miller's  books,  and  any 
books  of  that  kind  you  like,' " 

The  Highlanders  clung  firmly  to  the  doctrine  of 
election  in  the  form  in  which  the  Lord  Chancellor 
interpreted  the  Confession  of  Faith.  An  eminent 
preacher,  whom  I  often  heard  when  a  student,  de- 
nounced the  preaching  of  the  gospel  to  all.  The 
object  of  preaching,  he  stated,  was  one  of  the  outward 
and  the  principal  means  appointed  by  God  to  make 
the  elect  become  partakers  of  the  Covenant,  and  the 
surest  way  to  effect  this  was  by  holding  before  them 
the  terrors  of  hell  and  the  fearful  judgments  that 
awaited  all  those  who  did  not  accept  the  gospel. 
There  was  no  use  in  preaching  to  those  who  were  not 
elect,  but  as  the  elect  were  not  known  to  him,  there- 
fore he  had  to  preach  the  gospel  everywhere.  The 
Highlanders  who  held  this  belief  about  the  elect  had 
good  assurance  in  themselves  that  they  were  in  the 


AND  THE  THIRTY-NINE  ARTICLES  145 

number  of  the  elect,  and  this  belief  still  seems  to 
exist,  for  Principal  Alexander  calls  them  the  Saints 
of  God.  The  number  of  the  elect  is  necessarily  very 
small.  No  idolater  can  be  of  the  elect.  All  Roman 
Catholics  and  Ritualists  have  no  chance  of  salvation. 
All  the  higher  critics  are  sure  of  eternal  damnation. 
Out  of  the  whole  population  of  the  world,  estimated 
at  1,479,729,000,  not  more  than  10,000  to  20,000  can 
possibly  reach  heaven  or  be  elect,  and  the  number 
in  all,  probably,  must  be  reckoned  at  a  tenth  of  that 
number,  for  they  think  that  there  are  hypocritical 
and  lukewarm  Christians  even  among  themselves. 
It  is  astonishing  that  men  should  exist  with  such 
ideas.  But  it  has  to  be  remembered  that  these 
Highlanders  are  an  isolated,  simple  people,  with 
little  intercourse  with  the  great  world  and  vague 
conceptions  of  it,  and  that  they  regard  their  con- 
clusions as  inevitable  inferences  from  the  declarations 
of  Scripture. 

These  people  held  also  that  only  elect  children 
could  be  saved.  I  once  heard  Mr.  Milne,  a  mission- 
ary sent  by  the  London  Missionary  Society  to  China, 
deliver  an  address  on  China,  In  eloquent  words  he 
portrayed  the  hopeless  state  of  the  millions  of 
Chinese,  but  said  that  there  was  some  alleviation  of 
the  wretchedness  of  such  a  thought  by  the  belief 
that  at  least  the  children  of  China  would  be  saved. 
At  the  end  of  the  address  an  eminent  professor  of 
the  Free  Church  rose  up  in  the  lentrin,  or  circular 

L 


146     THE   WESTMINSTER  CONFESSION   OF  FAITH 

range  of  seats  in  which  the  elders  sat,  and  in  scath- 
ing words  protested  against  the  damnable  doctrine 
propounded  by  the  missionary.  It  was  quite  certain, 
he  said,  that  only  elect  children  would  be  saved,  and 
elect  children  meant  the  children  of  elect  parents, 
and  that  there  was  no  hope  for  the  children  of  China. 
It  was  the  decree  of  God  that  it  should  be  so,  and 
we  should  not  question  it. 

The  subject  of  creed  which  is  most  prominent 
in  the  minds  of  the  members  of  the  Minority  Free 
Church  is  the  position  of  the  Bible.  They  believe  that 
every  word  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments  has  been 
dictated  by  God,  that  consequently  there  is  no  error  in 
these  books  from  beginning  to  end,  and  that  all  their 
declarations  in  regard  to  the  earth  and  heaven  and 
hell,  and  the  inhabitants  of  them,  are  to  be  taken  as 
exactly  accurate  and  certainly  true.  But  we  may 
doubt  as  to  what  book  they  regard  as  the  Bible.  If 
they  were  to  follow  the  Confession  of  Faith,  the  Bible 
would  be  formed  of  the  Old  Testament  Books  in 
Hebrew  and  the  New  Testament  in  Greek.  But 
exceedingly  few  of  them  know  Hebrew  or  Greek. 
And  it  is  likely  that  they  regard  the  Gaelic  transla- 
tion as  inspired.  However  this  may  be,  they  set 
their  faces  against  all  inquiry  into  the  history  or 
textual  criticism  of  the  books.  They  stand  by  the 
decision  of  the  Scribes  and  Pharisees  in  regard  to 
the  Old  Testament,  and  by  the  opinions  that  became 
prevalent  in  the  Catholic  Church  of  the  fourth 
century  in    regard    to   the  New  Testament.     They 


AND  THE  THIRTY-NINE   ARTICLES  I47 

also  follow  the  Jews  and  the  Christians  of  the  early 
and  middle  ages  in  employing  allegory  to  a  great 
extent  in  their  interpretations.  One  of  their  favour- 
ite books  at  Communion  services  is  the  Song  of 
Solomon.  They  look  on  most  modern  commentaries 
as  far  wrong.  They  regard  all  the  men  who,  as  they 
state  it,  have  tampered  with  the  Bible  as  infidels. 
They  would  expel  every  professor  of  theology  in 
the  English  and  Scotch  Universities  from  the  Church, 
and  would  have  nothing  to  do  with  people  who 
listen  to  the  higher  criticism.  All  the  efforts  of 
scholars  to  understand  the  Scriptures  and  to  trace 
the  history  of  the  various  books  they  regard  as 
abomination. 

They  are  equally  conservative  in  their  forms  of 
worship.  They  object  to  all  modern  hymns,  and  use 
only  psalms.  They  thus  never  refer  to  Christ  in 
their  singing ;  often  sing  that  death  is  the  end  of  all 
men,  and  never  utter  words  that  would  indicate  a 
sure  belief  in  a  future  state  of  bliss.  The  word 
Trinity  cannot  occur  in  their  songs  of  praise.  They 
object  also  to  the  use  of  instrumental  music, 
especially  the  organ.  They  sing  the  words  of 
Psalm  cl.  at  their  English  services  : — 

Praise  him  with  trumpet's  sound,  his  praise 

With  psaltery  advance  ; 
With  timbrel,  harp,  stringed  instruments 

And  organs,  in  the  dance. 
Praise  him  on  cymbals  loud. 

Blow  trumpets  at  new  moon,  what  day 
Our  feast  appointed  is. 


148     THE  WESTMINSTER  CONFESSION   OF  FAITH 

But  they  would  probably  stone  the  man  who 
brought  harp  and  timbrel  and  psaltery  and  trumpet 
into  any  of  their  churches. 

They  stand  when  prayer  is  offered  up.  They  have 
probably  no  idea  that  the  earlier  Christians  also 
stood  on  Sunday  during  prayers,  and  it  is  likely  that 
the  only  reason  why  they  stand  is  because  it  was  an 
old  custom  arising  from  the  circumstance  that  in 
early  days  many  of  the  Scotch  churches  had  no 
regular  seats.  They  now  sit  during  singing,  possibly 
to  vary  the  exercise  of  their  muscles. 

The  old  custom  also  prevailed  with  them,  and  may 
prevail  still,  of  the  precentor  reading  or  chanting  the 
psalm  line  by  line  before  the  singing  thereof.  When 
it  was  proposed  by  some  that  this  custom  should  be 
given  up,  the  proposal  caused  serious  divisions  in 
several  of  the  churches  and  much  bitterness  of  spirit. 

These  are  some  of  the  beliefs  and  practices  of  the 
Minority  Free  Church ;  but,  as  I  said  before,  no 
authoritative  exposition  of  their  beliefs  has  been 
made  as  far  as  I  know,  and  the  large  majority  of  the 
members  of  Minority  Free  Churches  are  not  capable  of 
comprehending  some  of  the  most  important  dogmas 
in  the  Confession  of  Faith.  They  are  also  all  under- 
going modifications  of  their  attitude  to  religious 
questions  unconsciously  and  in  harmony  with  the 
change  in  their  temperament  and  the  circumstances 
of  the  time.  And  no  doubt  the  prominence  which 
they    now    occupy    before    the    public    will    bring 


AND  THE  THIRTY-NINE  ARTICLES  149 

enlightenment.  They,  like  their  kindred  in  the 
colonies,  will  make  great  advances.  Probably  they 
will  return  to  their  old  Church  connexions,  and  some 
of  them  will  distinguish  themselves  in  the  field  of  the 
historical  and  literary  criticism  of  the  books  of 
the  Old  and  New  Testaments. 

Sec.  II.— THE  PROFESSORS 
We  might  have  expected  some  light  on  the  beliefs 
of  the  Minority  Free  Church  from  the  writings  of  the 
Professors,  whom  their  leaders  have  appointed  to  the 
chairs  in  their  newly  constituted  college.  All  of 
these,  with  possibly  the  exception  of  Mr.  Hamilton, 
Professor  of  Hebrew,  of  whom  I  know  nothing,  have 
written  books  on  religious  and  historical  questions, 
but  none  of  the  four  belonged  to  the  Minority  Free 
Church.  One,  now  Principal  of  the  College,  was,  I 
understand,  a  United  Free  Church  Probationer,  Dr. 
W.  Menzies  Alexander,  M.A.,  B.SC,  B.D.,  CM.,  and  M.D. 
The  second,  the  Rev.  John  Urquhart,  was  a  Baptist, 
and  probably  still  remains  one.  The  third,  Rev. 
James  Kerr,  D.D.,  is  a  minister  of  the  Reformed 
Presbyterian  Church  of  Scotland,  one  of  the  eight 
ministers  belonging  to  that  denomination  ;  and  the 
fourth,  Mr.  D.  Hay  Fleming,  LL.D.,  who  lectures  only 
once  a  week,  belongs  to  the  Original  Secession.  It  is 
singular  that  not  one  minister  of  the  Minority  Free 
Church  was  deemed  fit  for  any  of  these  three  pro- 
fessorships or  for  the  lectureship. 


ISO     THE  WESTMINSTER  CONFESSION  OF  FAITH 

The  writings  of  these  Professors  and  Lecturers 
indicate  to  some  extent  the  line  of  thought  which  the 
Minority  Free  Church  intends  to  follow.  But  the 
election  of  Dr.  Alexander  presents  a  puzzle  to  the 
outsider.  He  has  written  a  book  on  demonic  posses- 
sion. A  few  extracts  will  show  how  he  treats  the 
writers  of  the  Synoptic  Gospels,  In  discussing  the 
cure  of  the  demoniac,  who  claimed  to  be  called  Legion, 
and  the  escape  into  the  swine  generally  known  as 
Gadarene,  but  which  Dr.  Alexander,  in  harmony  with 
the  best  results  of  textual  criticism,  calls  Gerasene,  ^ 
he  sums  up  the  statements  of  the  Synoptics,  on  what 
he  styles  *'  the  alleged  transmigration  of  the  de- 
mons," as  follows : — 

"  I.  The  demons,  having  gone  out, departed  into  the 
swine  ;  and  behold,  the  whole  herd  rushed  down  the 
steep  into  the  sea  and  died  in  the  waters.  (Matt, 
viii.  32.) 

"  2.  The  filthy  spirits,  having  gone  forth,  entered 
into  the  swine  ;  and  the  herd  rushed  down  the  steep, 
some  two  thousand  of  them,  and  began  to  be  choked 
in  the  sea.     (Mark  v.  13.) 

"  3.  The  demons,  having  gone  out  of  the  man, 
entered  into  the  swine  ;  and  the  herd  rushed  down 
the   steep  into  the   lake  and  were  choked.     (Luke 

viii.  33.)" 

In  discussing  these  statements  and  the  rest  of  the 
narrative  of  the  Synoptics,  he  says  : — 

^  Demonic  Possession  in  the  New  Testament,  Edinburgh,  1902. 


AND  THE  THIRTY-NINE  ARTICLES  IS  I 

"  We  recognise  here  a  solid  nucleus  of  fact,  which 
remains  after  the  application  of  the  canons  of  his- 
torical criticism.  That  unassailable  residuum  com- 
prises the  cure  of  the  demoniac  and  the  precipitation 
of  the  swine. 

"We  recognise  here  also  a  certain  theory  of  this 
occurrence.  The  facts  are  separable  from  the  theory, 
and  furnish  material  for  testing  its  validity.  The 
facts  remain  unchallenged ;  the  soundness  of  the 
theory  is  legitimate  matter  of  inquiry." 

Dr.  Alexander  then  quotes  the  words  of  the  three 
gospels,  Matthew  viii.  31,  32  ;  Mark  v.  9,  10,  12,  13  ; 
and  Luke  viii.  30-32,  and  proceeds  : — 

"  These  remarkable  differences  of  the  triple  tradi- 
tion give  us  the  theory  emergent  from  the  facts  : — 

"  I.  The  prayer  of  the  demoniac  becomes  the 
prayer  of  the  demons  themselves. 

"  2.  Leave  to  remain  in  the  district  becomes  a 
request  to  escape  the  abyss. 

"  3.  The  word.  Go — is  interpreted  as  permission  to 
enter  into  the  swine." 

He  then  expounds  his  own  attitude  to  the 
Synoptics  : — 

"  The  case  seems  to  be  regarded  as  one  of  multiple 
or  manifold  possession.  '  Many  demons  were  en- 
tered into  him.'  But  that  was  an  opinion  which 
Jesus  did  not  hold.  The  evidence  on  the  point  is 
perfectly  clear. 


152     THE  WESTMINSTER  CONFESSION  OF  FAITH 

"  Mark  has  these  oscillations  : — 

The  man  is  in  an  unclean  spirit,   v.  2. 

He  cried,  What  is  there  between  me  and  thee  ?     v.  7. 

Jesus  said,  Come  out  of  the  man,  unclean  spirit,    v.  8. 

The  man  besought  him  not  to  send  the  demons  away. 
V.  10. 

The  unclean  spirit  besought  him,  Send  us  into  the 

swine,    v.  12. 
Jesus  suffered  them  to  enter  the  swine,   v.  13. 
The    spirits,    having   come   out,    entered    the    swine. 

V.  13. 

^^  Jesus  allows  of  only  one  demon  throughout ;  Mark 
has  one  also  in  v.  2.  The  demoniac  sunnises  a  multi- 
tude ;  so  does  Mark  in  v.  12,  13. 

"  Luke  has  these  oscillations  : — 

The  man  has  demons,    viii.  27. 

He   cried.    What   is   there    between    me    and    thee? 

viii.  28. 
Jesus   commanded   the   unclean   spirit   to    go    forth. 

viii.  29. 
The  unclean  spirit  had  seized  him  many  times,   viii.  29. 
He  was  driven  by  the  demon  into  the  wilderness. 

viii.  29. 
He  said.  Legion ;  for  many  demons  had  entered  into 

him.    viii.  30. 
The  demons  besought  him  not  to  order  them  off  to 

hell.    viii.  31. 
The  demons  besought  permission  to  enter  the  swine. 

viii.  32. 
The  demons,  having  come  out  of  the  man,  entered  the 

swine,   viii.  33. 


AND  THE  THIRTY-NINE  ARTICLES  1 53 

^^  Jesus  allows  of  only  one  demon  throughout ;  Luke 
has  one  also  in  viii.  29.  The  demoniac  surmises  a 
multitude ;  so  does  Luke  in  viii.  30,  31,  32,  33." 

Here  both  Mark  and  Luke  are  wrong.  In  fact 
the  demons  did  not  and  could  not  go  into  the  swine. 
There  was  first  of  all  only  one  demon  to  go.  And, 
second,  the  theory  is  wrong  that  demons  went  into 
animals,  Christ  did  not  sanction  such  an  idea.  So 
thinks  Dr,  Alexander.  "  Neither  direction  to  enter 
the  swine,  nor  permission  to  do  so,  nor  compensa- 
tion for  disturbance  can  be  thought  of  here."  Dr. 
Alexander  undertakes  to  explain  the  stampede  of 
the  swine  in  a  natural  way.  "  There  may  have 
been  an  initial  restlessness  among  the  herd,"  before 
the  cure  of  the  demoniac  owing  to  the  state  of 
the  weather.  Then  came  "the  fierce  yells  of  the 
maniac,"  "But  above  those  wild  shouts  of  the 
maniac  rose  the  voice  of  Christ,"  and  the  other 
accompaniments  "were  more  than  sufficient  to 
arouse  the  most  stolid  creatures.  Each  interjec- 
tional  episode  was  stormier  than  its  predecessor,  till 
the  terror  of  the  swine,  passing  beyond  all  control, 
projected  them,  down  the  steep  declivity,  over  the 
narrow  foreshore,  almost  in  a  solid  mass,  into  the 
waters.  The  whole  series  of  events  was  probably 
comprised  within  a  few  moments." 

Dr.  Alexander  also  supposes  that  "  the  plunging 
of  the  herd  of  swine  into  the  waters  may  have  been 


154     THE  WESTMINSTER  CONFESSION  OF  FAITH 

less  fatal  than  is  commonly  supposed.  These 
animals  are  excellent  swimmers.  No  higher  author- 
ity for  this  statement  can  be  found  than  Heilprin. 
When  discussing  the  migration  of  animals,  he  says  : 
*  The  domestic  pig  even  at  a  very  young  age,  has 
been  known  to  swim  five  or  six  miles  ;  and  it  is  not 
exactly  impossible  that  the  wild  hog,  in  cases  of 
absolute  necessity,  might  successfully  attempt  a 
passage  of  three  or  four  times  this  distance.'  Huxley 
betrays  no  inkling  of  this  fact,  which  is  rather 
damaging  to  his  advocacy  of  the  imaginary  claims 
of  the  '  Gadarene  Swinefolk.'" 

Dr.  Alexander  gives  another  instance  of  the 
boldness  with  which  he  treats  the  statements  of  the 
Evangelists  in  connexion  with  what  he  calls  the 
"  Gerasene  Affair."  He  notices  the  fact  that 
Matthew  mentions  "  two  demoniacs  where  the  other 
Synoptists  have  but  one,"  and  thus  remarks  on  the 
discrepancy :  *'  We  have  thus  to  consider  two  men 
suffering  from  the  most  furious  mania,  both  manifest- 
ing the  same  homicidal  propensities,  both  harbour- 
ing the  same  delusions,  both  practising  the  same 
mutilations,  and  both  uttering  the  same  menaces. 
How  two  lunatics,  animated  by  such  terrible  passions, 
could  dwell  together  in  unity,  '  for  a  long  time,' 
surpasses  comprehension.  The  theory  o{  folie  a  deux 
is  inadequate  to  the  occasion,  and  the  circumstances 
raise  an  inherent,  if  not  an  invincible,  doubt  as  to 
the  accuracy  of  this  detail." 


AND  THE  THIRTY-NINE  ARTICLES  1 55 

The  whole  exposition,  as  will  be  seen,  is  a  daring 
piece  of  the  higher  criticism,  and  the  context  only 
deepens  this  impression.  Indeed,  the  book  itself  is 
throughout  the  work  of  an  able  scholar  well  versed 
in  historical  research,  and  in  the  modern  methods  of 
it.  The  reasons  which  lead  him  to  doubt  the  ac- 
curacy of  the  Gospels  have  a  close  resemblance  to 
those  which  induced  one  of  the  greatest  pagan 
opponents  of  early  Christianity  to  discredit  the 
Gospel  narratives,  as  we  learn  from  Macarius  Magnes. 
Dr.  Alexander,  taking  advantage  of  his  medical 
knowledge,  affirms  that  all  the  symptoms  of  diseases 
attributed  to  the  demoniacs  are  symptoms  of  diseases 
well  known  to  medical  men.  Several  German 
medical  men,  some  of  them  of  great  eminence,  have 
followed  the  same  line  of  thought,  especially  Ebstein ; 
but  Ebstein  goes  further,  and  maintains  that  all  the 
cures  can  be  paralleled  in  the  history  of  modern 
medicine.^  Dr.  Alexander  stopped  short  of  this,  and 
apparently  has  stopped  altogether  since  he  became 
Principal  of  the  Minority  Free  Church  College.  He 
has  written  a  letter  to  say  that  his  conclusions  about 
the  demoniacs  and  the  swine  were  not  regarded  by 
him  as  final,  but  as  simply  tentative  in  part,  and  he 
states  that  his  "  views  in  these  respects  were  un- 
necessary and  immature  speculations."  Every  in- 
vestigator has  the  right  to  change  his  opinions,  and 

^  Die  Medizin  im  N'euen  Testament  iitid  im  Talmud.  (Stuttgart, 
1903.) 


156     THE  WESTMINSTER  CONFESSION  OF  FAITH 

surely  no  one  regards  an  inquirer  as  a  wise  man  who 
comes  in  this  world  to  final  conclusions  on  historical 
and  theological  questions.  Indeed,  it  is  quite  possible 
that  as  Dr.  Alexander  is  a  man  of  wide  and  varied 
culture,  and  has  shown  a  gift  for  bold  inquiry,  his 
present  attitude  is  unconsciously  to  himself  a  mere 
suspension  of  research,  and  not  a  final  closure  of  it. 

Mr.  Urquhart's  works  reveal  a  widely  different 
state  of  mind.  Mr.  Urquhart  has  read  and  travelled 
much,  knows  Hebrew  and  Greek  well,  and  has 
studied  some  of  the  best  books  on  textual  criticism. 
He  holds  that  every  word  in  the  Bible  has  been 
dictated  by  God,  and  that  there  is  no  inaccuracy 
in  any  of  the  books  of  the  Old  and  New  Testament. 
But  it  is  doubtful  whether  he  believes  that  all  the 
words  in  our  Hebrew  Bible  and  Greek  New  Testa- 
ment have  come  down  to  us  as  God  dictated  them. 
And  whether  this  be  so  or  not,  he  allows  that  there 
are  discrepancies,  but  they  are  seeming  and  not  real 
discrepancies.  His  mode  of  treating  these  is  seen 
in  one  of  his  books,  with  the  title  :  How  Old  is  Man  ? 
Some  misunderstood  chapters  in  Scripture  Chronology 
(1904).  In  chapter  ii.  he  points  out  a  remark- 
able discrepancy :  "  Here,  then,"  he  says,  "  the 
identical  period  described  in  the  Old  Testament 
as  extending  over  480  years  is  said  in  the  New 
Testament  to  have  really  extended  to  573  years" 
(i  Kings  vi.  i  and  Acts  xiii.  19).  As  God,  it  is 
argued,  dictated  both  passages,  and  must  therefore 


AND  THE  THIRTY-NINE   ARTICLES  1 57 

have  known  the  dates  perfectly,  He  must  have  had 
some  object  for  dictating  the  discrepancy.  It  is 
for  the  Christian  to  find  out  what  was  His  purpose. 
Of  course,  it  is  not  stated  anywhere.  Apparently, 
after  the  lapse  of  long  ages,  and  now  in  these  last 
days,  Mr.  Urquhart  has  discovered  it.  The  difference 
between  480  and  573  is  93.  But  93  of  the  years 
mentioned  constitute  a  special  period.  "  They 
summed  up  the  times  of  national  humiliation  and 
servitude,"  and  therefore  the  number  of  these  years 
was  suppressed  in  i  Kings  as  a  warning  to  Israel 
not  to  forsake  God.  "  Could  anything,"  he  says,  "  be 
more  effective,  as  an  enforcement  of  this  warning, 
than  the  blotting  out  of  those  93  years  in  which  God 
had  been  compelled  to  abandon  his  people  ? "  Mr. 
Urquhart  further  explains  that  the  number  480  is 
symbolical. 

Mr.  Urquhart  next  deals  with  "  the  Genealogy  of 
our  Lord  in  Matthew's  Gospel."  He  easily  explains 
how  the  statement  is  correct  that  from  the  carrying 
away  into  Babylon  unto  Christ  are  fourteen  genera- 
tions, though  Matthew  mentions  only  thirteen,  in- 
cluding Christ.  But  a  greater  difficulty  meets  him. 
In  Matt.  i.  8  occur  the  words,  "  And  Joram  begat 
Ozias."  "  Joram,  or  Jehoram,"  he  says,  "  was  not  the 
father,  but  the  great-great-grandfather  of  Uzziah  or 
Ozias."  This  feature  of  the  genealogy  has  been  dis- 
cussed by  many  commentators,  and  various  explana- 
tions   have    been    offered.     Mr.    Urquhart's    is    not 


158     THE  WESTMINSTER   CONFESSION   OF   FAITH 

entirely  new.  "  The  omission  is  intentional  and 
deliberate,"  he  says.  The  three  persons  whose  names 
should  have  been  inserted  were  descendants  of  Jeze- 
bel. "  The  names  of  Jezebel's  descendants  who  pro- 
longed her  influence  and  sought  to  complete  her  evil 
work  are  blotted  out  with  hers."  De  Wette  mentions 
a  similar  suggestion  with  a  mark  of  astonishment. 
"  According  to  Ebr.^  to  exclude  them  as  descendants 
of  the  heathen  Athalia  from  the  succession  to  the 
theocratic  throne  !  "  The  mark  of  admiration  is  well 
deserved.  If  an  ordinary  historian  were  to  frame  a 
genealogical  table  on  the  plan  of  excluding  all  who 
did  not  please  him,  though  they  were  in  the  direct 
line,  he  would  be  deemed  to  have  lost  his  senses. 
The  method  of  Mr.  Urquhart  creates  complete  dis- 
trust in  the  accuracy  of  the  Bible,  as  there  may  be 
always  some  hidden  reason  for  introducing  discrep- 
ancies, which  may  be  discovered  only  after  lapses  of 
centuries,  and  only  by  such  men  as  Mr.  Urquhart, 
and  even  then  there  is  no  guarantee  of  the  correct- 
ness of  the  guess  of  the  new  prophet  that  attempts 
to  solve  the  riddles  of  the  Bible.  The  method  re- 
minds me  of  a  laborious  work  carried  out  to  its  end 
by  a  revered  and  beautiful  old  schoolmaster  of  Had- 
dington. He  thought  that  only  the  consonants  of 
the  Hebrew  Bible  were  dictated  by  God,  and  that 
the  reason  why  God  did  not  dictate  the  vowels  was 
that  He  had  so  arranged  the  consonants  that  vowels 
could  be  inserted  by  readers  in  such  a  way  that  the 


AND  THE   THIRTY-NINE  ARTICLES  1 59 

words  could  become  the  Word  of  God  in  every 
language.  He  applied  his  idea  by  filling  in  the 
vowels  so  as  to  produce  the  whole  Bible  in  Anglo- 
Scotch.^  The  next  verses  in  Scripture  with  which 
Mr.  Urquhart  deals  occur  in  i  Samuel  xiii.  i,  2. 
There  he  says  :  "  In  Authorised  Version  we  read  : 
'  Saul  reigned  one  year ;  and  when  he  had  reigned 
two  years  over  Israel,  Saul  chose  him  three  thousand 
men  of  Israel.'  "  But  this  translation  is  wrong  ac- 
cording to  Mr.  Urquhart.  It  ought  to  be  :  "  Saul  was 
a  year  old  when  he  began  to  reign  ;  and  he  reigned 
two  years  over  Israel."  This  is  a  Scripture  state- 
ment after  Mr.  Urquhart's  own  heart.  God  must 
have  had  some  great  lesson  behind  His  figures  or  He 
would  not  have  made  such  a  strange  statement.  It 
gives  him  an  opportunity  of  suggesting  a  solution 
which  has  occurred  to  no  other  person.  But  we  have 
already  produced  specimens  of  his  solutions,  and 
need  say  no  more  on  that  point.  We  refer  to  his 
treatment  of  the  verses  in  order  to  quote  what  he 
says  in  regard  to  the  Revised  Version  of  the  passage, 
which  runs  thus  :  "  Saul  was  {thirty)  years  old  when 
he  began  to  reign."  A  marginal  note  is  placed  at 
the  word  "  thirty  "  to  this  effect :  "  The  Hebrew  has, 
*  Saul  was  a  year  old!  The  whole  verse  is  omitted 
in  the  unrevised  Septuagint,  but  in  a  later  recension 
the  number  thirty  is  inserted."     "  This  is  a  typical 

^  Notice  of  Six   Biblico-Classical  MS.    Works,   by    Rev.    William 
Whyte.     Edinburgh,  1872. 


l60     THE  WESTMINSTER   CONFESSION   OF  FAITH 

instance  of  the  daring  and  the  deficiencies  of  the 
Revised  Version.  It  actually  ventures  to  change  the 
text;  and  upon  what  is  the  venture  based?  Upon  a 
confessedly  late  addition  to  the  Septuagint  trans- 
lation! But  if  its  alteration  of  the  text  is  wanton, 
the  attempted  justification  in  its  marginal  note  is 
atrocious.     And  this  is  not  a  solitary  instance." 

The  rest  of  the  book  is  occupied  with  ingenious 
dislocations  of  numbers,  and  his  conclusion  is  that 
the  "old  chronology  must  be  discarded,"  i.e.  all  the 
previous  systems  of  Biblical  chronology  are  wrong, 
and  Mr.  Urquhart's  system  is  alone  right.  According 
to  his  system,  8,167  years  probably  elapsed  between 
the  creation  of  Adam  and  the  birth  of  Christ,  and 
we  have  in  1904,  "10,071  years  as  the  probable  dura- 
tion of  human  life  upon  earth."  He  speaks  rather 
contemptuously  of  the  "  inflated  Egyptian  chrono- 
logy/' and  he  must  believe  that  geologists  are  guilty 
of  the  wildest  extravagances. 

Mr.  Urquhart  has  written  another  book  which 
deserves  mention  here.  It  is  entitled,  How  to  Read 
the  Bible.  In  it  he  shows  acquaintance  with  a  few  of 
the  best  writers  on  textual  criticism,  and  he  bases 
his  conclusions,  to  some  extent,  on  the  processes  of 
modern  textual  criticism.  If  he  lectures  on  this 
subject  to  his  students,  he  will  have  to  introduce 
them  to  the  text-books  and  principal  authorities 
on  it;  and  what  will  the  result  be?  Nearly  all 
the  great  authorities  of  the  present  day  are  against 


AND  THE  THIRTY-NINE  ARTICLES  l6l 

Mr.  Urquhart.  If  anyone  were  to  follow  his  method 
in  editing  a  classical  text,  he  would  be  regarded  as 
incompetent  for  the  work.  And  are  the  students 
likely  to  struggle  against  the  overwhelming  current 
simply  to  yield  to  Mr.  Urquhart's  inclinations  ? 
Mr.  Urquhart  will,  I  should  think,  prove  a  professor 
most  dangerous  to  the  continued  existence  of  the 
Minority  Free  Church. 

The  third  professor,  the  Rev.  James  Kerr,  D.D., 
has  published  a  number  of  pamphlets,  and  edited 
such  books  as  the  Scots  Worthies.  He  is  an  ardent 
admirer  of  the  Covenanters  and  Scottish  Martyrs, 
and  evidently  a  most  industrious  student.  His  books 
are  rather  difficult  to  procure.  I  have  before  me  a 
pamphlet  written  by  him,  and  published  in  1903. 
It  is  entitled,  "  The  Higher  Criticism  :  Disastrous 
Results  :  Professors  Smith,  Dods,  and  Denney. 
I.  The  Bible  Deposed  ;  II.  The  Heathen  Deceived  ; 
III.  The  Redeemer  Despised  ;  IV.  The  Father 
Dethroned."  Dr.  Kerr  addresses  the  professors 
named  in  his  title-page.  Here  is  a  specimen  : 
"  Dr.  Denney,  you  are  Professor  of  New  Testament 
Language,  Literature,  and  Theology,  United  Free 
Church  College,  Glasgow.  The  missionaries  are  teach- 
ing in  our  land  that  the  Bible  accounts  of  the  creation 
of  Adam  and  Eve  are  historical  facts,  but  you  deny 
this  account,  and  hold  that  this  story  is  a  myth." 
The  short  extract  reveals  the  attitude  of  Dr.  Kerr. 
He  places  the  three  professors  and  all  his  readers 

M 


1 62     THE  WESTMINSTER  CONFESSION   OF  FAITH 

in  a  dilemma.  They  must  either  believe  that  the 
Bible  accounts  of  the  creation  of  Adam  and  Eve 
are  historical  facts,  or  they  are  not  Christians.  So 
with  the  other  results  of  what  he  calls  the  infidel 
higher  criticism.  If  anyone  believes  them,  then  he 
deposes  the  Bible,  deceives  the  heathen,  despises 
the  Redeemer,  and  dethrones  the  Father.  And  the 
matter  is  so  well  argued  that  the  inevitable  result 
of  Dr.  Kerr's  representation  of  the  case,  in  nine 
instances  out  of  ten,  must  be  that  the  reader  must 
say,  if  he  accepts  the  dilemma,  "  I  am  quite  sure 
that  the  geologists  are  right,  and  that  in  many  points 
the  Biblical  scholars  are  right,  and  I  have  nothing 
for  it  but  to  believe  that  Christianity  is  a  delusion." 
Dr.  Kerr's  pamphlets  are  thus  eminently  fitted  to 
promote  an  intellectual  revolt  against  Christianity, 
and  no  doubt  he  will  promote  this  revolt  among  his 
students,  and  add  a  stone  to  the  testimony  derived 
from  the  correspondence  of  Mr.  Henry  Drummond. 
Professor  George  Smith,  who,  as  his  biographer,  had 
to  read  this  correspondence,  says  with  regard  to  the 
great  numbers  who  consulted  him  on  their  spiritual 
welfare  :^  "  One  and  all  tell  how  the  literal  acceptance 
of  the  Bible — the  faith  which  finds  in  it  nothing 
erroneous,  nothing  defective,  and  (outside  of  the 
sacrifices  and  Temple)  nothing  temporary — is  what 
has  driven  them  from  religion."  Curiously  enough, 
it  never  strikes  Mr.  Urquhart  and   Dr.   Kerr  that 

^  Modern  Criticism  and  the  Preachittg  of  the  Old  Testament,  p.  27. 


AND  THE  THIRTY-NINE  ARTICLES  163 

they  may  be  wrong,  and  that  if  they  are  wrong  they 
are  exerting  themselves  to  palm  upon  their  fellow- 
countrymen  books,  and  passages  of  books,  as  dic- 
tated by  God,  which  have  all  the  traces  of  human 
imperfection. 

The  fourth,  who  has  been  requested  to  impart 
instruction  to  the  Minority  Free  Church  students,  is 
my  friend  Dr.  D.  Hay  Fleming.  He  has  been  for  a 
long  time  a  staunch  adherent  of  the  Original 
Secession,  and  has  done  much  to  elucidate  the 
history  of  the  Scottish  Martyrs  and  Covenanters. 
But  modern  influences,  though  he  is  naturally  in- 
clined to  resist  them,  have  been  playing  around  him. 
In  dealing  with  the  history  of  Scotland  he  adopts  all 
the  methods  which,  when  employed  in  the  history  of 
the  Jews  and  their  books,  awaken  such  strong 
antagonistic  feelings  among  the  ministers  of  the 
Minority  Free  Church.  It  is  likely  that  his  students 
will  learn  these  methods,  and  in  the  course  of  time  will 
apply  them  to  all  the  subjects  which  come  before 
them.  He  has  also  in  his  introductory  address,  and 
the  correspondence  which  ensued  upon  it,  practically, 
probably  unintentionally,  abandoned  one  of  the  most 
important  of  the  theological  positions  of  the  Minority 
Free  Church.  In  his  apology  for  the  Article  in  the 
Confession  with  regard  to  the  creation  in  six  days, 
he  follows  the  explanations  which  were  suggested  by 
Professor  Mitchell.^    And  we  must  hold  him  as  agree- 

^  The  Westminster  Assembly  (p.  394). 


l64     THE  WESTMINSTER  CONFESSION   OF  FAITH 

ing  with  the  Professor  when  he  says:  "The  first  of  them 
[charges  against  the  Confession]  is  the  assertion,  so 
often  and  confidently  propounded  of  late,  that  the 
Confession  represents  the  creation  of  the  world  as 
having  taken  place  in  six  natural  or  literal  days, 
which  almost  all  orthodox  divines  now  grant  it  did 
not."  The  historical  interpretation  of  the  verses  in 
Genesis  is  thus  abandoned  by  the  lecturer  of  the 
Minority  Free  Church  and  the  "  figurative  interpreta- 
tion "  approved.  Professor  Mitchell  appeals  to  Philo 
and  Augustine  that  the  figurative  interpretation  was 
known  long  before  the  period  when  the  Confession  of 
Faith  was  composed.  But  all  the  writers  to  whom 
he  appeals  plainly  did  not  believe  that  the  verses  in 
Genesis  were  historical.  Philo's  explanations  of  the 
verses  are  transcendental.  He  believed  that  there 
was  an  incorporeal  world  existent  in  the  divine 
Logos,  and  free  from  the  limitations  of  time,  and 
that  this  world  was  the  model  after  which  the  cor- 
poreal world  was  brought  into  existence.  His 
mystical  explanations  have  much  to  do  with  this 
incorporeal  world.  He  scouts  the  idea  that  God 
required  six  days  to  make  the  world.^  The  number 
"  six "  is  employed  simply  to  indicate  that  there 
was  order  in  the  creation  of  material  objects.  And 
then,  in  another  treatise,  which  is  really  a  con- 
tinuation of  the  first,  called  the  Allegories  of  Sacred 

^  De  Opificio  Mundi,  (xiii.  3). 


AND  THE  THIRTY-NINE  ARTICLES  165 

Laws,  he  says:  "  Exceedingly  simple  it  is  to  imagine 
that  the  world  came  into  existence  in  six  days  or 
at  all  in  time."  Professor  Mitchell  next  refers  to 
Augustine,  though  he  might  have  quoted  Origen 
and  other  earlier  writers  who  treated  the  narrative 
as  allegorical.  Augustine,  in  discussing  the  account 
of  creation,  proceeds  with  all  the  freedom  of  modern 
criticism.^  He  supposes  that  the  language  of  the 
verses  is  appropriate  to  the  angelic  conception  of 
creation  and  of  the  universe.  He  notices  that 
before  the  sun  was  created,  there  could  not  be  days 
properly  so  called,  in  this  statement  not  being  con- 
scious that  the  Hebrew  mind  thought  differently, 
for  it  is  plain  that  light  and  darkness  were  not 
identified  by  the  Hebrews  with  the  sun,  but  had 
separate  existences.  God  did  not  therefore  create  the 
world  in  six  days.  Besides  this.  He  did  not  require 
six  days  to  make  the  world.  He  made  the  world  by 
his  word  or  command  (Psalm  xxxiii.  9).  And  the 
reason  why  the  Holy  Spirit  in  Genesis  describes  the 
work  as  done  in  six  days  is  to  enable  readers  to  form, 
by  taking  one  point  after  another,  a  vivid  picture  of 
all  that  was  done  by  God's  single  creative  command. 
The  statements  in  Genesis  are  not  historical  but 
pictorial.^ 

In  the  Bibliotheca  Sancta  of  Sixtus^  referred  to  by 

^  De  Genesi  ad  Litteram,  lib.  iv.  24. 
^  De  Genesi  ad  Litteram,  iv.  23,  52. 
^  Lib.  V.  ann.  24,  p.  366  (ed.  of  1576). 


l66    THE  WESTMINSTER  CONFESSION   OF  FAITH 

Professor  Mitchell,  the  opinions  of  the  fathers  are 
thus  summed  up  : — 

"  Philo,  expounding  the  same  passage  in  the  first 
book  of  the  Allegories  of  the  Law,  says :  '  It  is  a 
sign  of  rustic  simplicity  to  think  that  the  world  was 
created  in  six  days,  or  indeed  in  any  fixed  time,  for 
the  whole  world  is  an  alternation  of  days  and  nights, 
which  the  motion  of  the  sun  inevitably  causes,  as  it 
journeys  over  the  earth  and  under  the  earth.  More- 
over, the  sun  is  considered  to  be  a  part  of  the 
heavens  ;  so  that  it  must  be  allowed  that  time  was 
posterior  to  the  world,  because  it  is  a  product  of  the 
world.  Now,  the  motion  of  the  heavens  indicated 
the  nature  of  time,  so  when  you  hear,  "  He  completed 
his  work  on  the  sixth  day,"  you  must  not  take  it  as 
referring  to  a  certain  number  of  days,  but  to  the 
perfection  of  the  universe,  which  is  signified  by  the 
perfect  number  six.' 

"This  view  of  Philo  has  been  followed  by  some 
Catholic  authors.  Amongst  the  Latins,  Augustine 
referred  the  enumeration  of  six  days  which  Moses 
made,  not  to  a  succession  of  time,  but  to  the  natural 
order  of  the  works,  which  is  allotted  to  days,  or  to 
the  order  of  the  revelation  of  the  six  works,  which 
one  after  another  God  revealed  to  the  angels. 

"Among  the  Greek  authors,  Procopius  said  that  the 
number  of  days  was  adopted  by  Moses,  not  for  the 
sake  of  time,  but  for  the  sake  of  instruction,  because 
of  the  limitations  of  our  understanding,  which  could 


AND  THE  THIRTY-NINE  ARTICLES  1 67 

in  no  other  way  comprehend  the  order  of  created 
things  on  account  of  their  multitude. 

"  Thus,  while  this  dogma  must  by  no  means  be 
condemned,  yet  it  must  not  be  so  positively  asserted 
that  we  are  to  consider  as  rustic  and  ignorant  the 
views  of  Basilius,  Gregorius  Nyssenus,  Chrysostomus, 
Ambrosius,  and  the  other  learned  Fathers  who  have 
taught  that  the  world  was  created  in  the  space  of 
six  days,  especially  as  the  above  argument  of  Philo 
in  no  way  contradicts  their  opinion. 

"  St.  Thomas,  dealing  with  this  in  the  first  part  of 
his  Summa  Theologia,  says :  '  Whereas,  although 
before  the  construction  of  the  firmament  there  was 
not  the  time  which  measures  and  follows  the  motion 
of  the  heavens,  yet  there  was  a  time  to  measure 
another  motion,  namely,  that  first  motion  and  suc- 
cession of  conceptions  and  feelings  in  the  angelic 
minds,  in  which  thoughts  could  not  have  arisen  in 
such  numbers  unless  one  before  another  and  one 
after  another ;  but  Before  and  After  are  nothing  else 
than  distinctions  of  time.'" 

Now,  if  Dr.  Fleming  accepts  the  expositions  of 
Philo  and  Augustine  as  his  explanations  of  Genesis, 
then  the  doctrine  that  the  verses  in  Genesis  are 
historical  is  undermined,  and  with  these  verses  the 
institution  of  the  Sabbath  in  Exodus ;  and  there  can 
be  no  dogmatic  objection  to  treating  other  portions 
of  Scripture  in  the  same  allegorical  way. 


l68     THE   WESTMINSTER  CONFESSION   OF  FAITH 

From  this  exposition  of  the  opinions  of  the 
Minority  Free  Church  professors  it  will  be  seen  that 
they  do  not  adhere  rigidly  to  the  Confession  of  Faith 
or  to  the  dogmas  of  their  predecessors.  And  the 
establishment  of  a  college  for  the  students  of  the 
Minority  Free  Church  is  likely  to  bring  greater 
modifications  of  the  dogmas  and  to  foster  a  spirit  of 
inquiry  which,  as  it  has  done  in  the  Majority  Free 
Church,  will  in  the  end  produce  a  revolution,  and 
bring  the  Minority  Free  Church  back  to  their  old 
friends,  or  to  the  Established  Church,  or  to  both 
united  together  in  one  Church. 


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IN  THEOLOGICAL  LITERATURE.  5 

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A  SELECTION  OF  WORKS 


Company,  The,  of  Heaven  :  Daily  Links  with  the  Household  of 

God.  Being  Selections  in  Prose  and  Verse  from  various  Authors. 
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Oonybeare  and  Howson.— THE  LIFE  AND  EPISTLES  OF 

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Rev.  J.  S.  Howson,  D.D.     With  numerous  Maps  and  Illustrations. 

Library  Edition.    Two  Vols.  %vo.  q.\s.    Students'  Edition.    One  Vol, 

Crown  8vo.     6s.     Popular  Edition.     One  Vol.     Crown  8vo.    3s.  6d. 

Creigliton.— LIFE    AND     LETTERS    OF    MANDELL 

CREIGHTON,  D.D.,Oxon.  andCamb.,  sometime  Bishop  of  London. 
By  his  Wife.  PVttk  8  Portraits  (4  Photogravures),  a7id  3  other  Illus- 
trations.     Two  Vols.     8vo.     "z&s,  net. 

Creighton. — Works  by  Mandell  Creighton,  D.D.,  late  Lord 
Bishop  of  London. 
A  HISTORY  OF  THE  PAPACY  FROM  THE  GREAT  SCHISM 

TO  THE  SACK  OF  ROxME  (1378-1527).    Six  Volumes.    Crown  8vo. 

i^s.  each  net. 
THE  CHURCH    AND    THE    NATION  :    Charges    and  Addresses. 

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THOUGHTS  ON  EDUCATION  :  Speeches  and  Sermons.     Crown  8vo. 

55.  net. 
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THE   MIND    OF    ST.    PETER;    and   other  Sermons.       Crown    8vo. 

y.  6d.  net. 

Day-Hours  of  the  Church  of  England,  The.     Newly  Revised 

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Drawbridge,  M.A.     Crown  8vo.     3^.  net. 

Edersheim.— Works  by  Alfred  Edersheim,  M.A.,  D.D.,  Ph.D. 

THE  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  JESUS  THE  MESSIAH.     Two    Vols. 

8vo.     IIS.  net. 
JESUS  THE  MESSIAH  :  being  an  Abridged  Edition  of  'The  Life  and 

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Ellicott.— Works  by  C.  J.  Ellicott,  D.D.,  Bishop  of  Gloucester. 
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PAUL'S  EPISTLES.     Greek  Text,  with  a  Critical  and  Grammatical 
Commentary,  and  a  Revised  English  Translation.     8vo, 


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Galatians.  8s.  6d. 
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Emery.  — THE    INNER    LIFE    OF    THE    SOUL.      Short 

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English  (The)  Catholic's  Vade  Mecum:  a  Short  Manual  of  General 

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Epochs  of  Church  History.— Edited  by  Mandell  Creighton, 
D.D.,  late  Lord  Bishop  of  London.  Small  8vo.  2s.  6d. 
each. 


THE  ENGLISH  CHURCH  IN 
OTHER  LANDS.    By  the  Rev.  H.  W. 

Tucker,  M.A. 

THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  REFOR- 
MATION IN  ENGLAND.  By  the 
Rev.  Geo.  G.  Perry,  M.A. 

THE  CHURCH  OF  THE  EARLY 
FATHERS.  By  the  Rev.  Alfred 
Plummer,  D.D. 

THE  EVANGELICAL  REVIVAL  IN 
THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY. 
By  the  Rev.  J.  H.  Overton,  D.D. 

THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  OXFORD. 
By  the  Hon.  G.  C  Brodrick,  D.C.L. 

THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  CAM- 
BRIDGE. By  J.  Bass  Mullinger, 
M.A. 

THE  ENGLISH  CHURCH  IN  THE 
MIDDLE  AGES.  By  the  Rev.  W. 
Hunt,  M.A. 


THE  CHURCH  AND  THE 
EASTERN  EMPIRE.  By  the  Rev. 
H.  F.  TozER,  M.A. 

THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  ROMAN 
EMPIRE.  By  the  Rev.  A.  Carr, 
M.A. 

THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  PURI- 
TANS, 1570-1660.  By  Henry  Offlky 
Wakeman,  M.A. 

HILDEBRAND    AND   HIS  TIMES 

By  the  Very  Rev.  W.  R.  W.  Stephkni 

B.D. 
THE  POPES    AND  THE    HOHEN- 

STAUFEN.     By  Ugo  Balzani. 
THE     COUNTER  REFORMATION. 

By  Adolphus  William  Ward,  LittD. 

WYCLIFFE      AND      MOVEMENTS 

FOR   REFORM.     By  Reginald  L. 

Poole,  M.A. 
THE  ARIAN  CONTROVERSY.     By 

the  Rev.   Professor  H.   M.  Gwatkin, 

M.A. 


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Farrar.— Works  by  Frederic  W.  Farrar,  D.D.,  late  Dean  of 
Canterbury. 
TEXTS  EXPLAINED  ;  or,  Helps  to  Understand  the  New  Testament. 

Crown  8vo.     55.  net. 
THE  BIBLE  :  Its  Meaning  and  Supremacy.     8vo.     6s.  net. 

Fosbery.— VOICES  OF  COMFORT.  Edited  by  the  Rev. 
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Reading.     Cheap  Edition.    Small  8vo.     y.  net. 

The  Larger  Edition  (ys.  6d.)  may  still  be  had. 

Gammack.— GOOD  FRIDAY.    The  Seven  Last  Words  in  their 

Significanc  for  Life,  with  a  Good  Friday  Address  to  Children.  By  the 
Rev.  Arthur  J.  Gammack,  Rector  of  Christ  Chuich,  West  Haven, 
Conn.     i6mo.     2s.  6d.  vet. 


A  SELECTION  OF  WORKS 


Geikie.— Works  by  J.  Cunningham  Geikie,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  late 
Vicar  of  St.  Martin-at-Palace,  Norwich. 

HOURS  WITH  THE  BIBLE  :  the  Scriptures  in  the  Light  of  Modern 
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OLD  TESTAMENT. 


Creation   to    the    Patriarchs. 
With  a  Map  and  Illustrations.  55. 

Moses  to  Judges.     With  a  Map 
and  Illustrations,    ^s. 

Samson   to    Solomon.      With   a 
Map  and  Illustrations,     5J. 


With 


Rehoboam  to   Hezekiah. 

Illustrations.     5^. 
Manasseh    to    Zedekiah.     With 

the  Contemporary  Prophets.    With 

a  Map  and  Illustrations.     Sx. 
Exile   to   Malachi.      With   the 

Contemporary    Prophets.        With 

Illustrations,     t^s. 


NEW  TESTAMENT. 


The  Gospels.      With  a  Map  and 
Illustrations.    5^. 

l^iFE    and    Words    of    Christ. 
With  Map.     2  vols.     los. 


Life  and  Epistles  of  St.  Paul. 

With    Maps     and    Illustrations. 

2  vols,     \os. 
St.  Peter  to  Revelation.    With 

29  Illustrations.     5^. 


LIFE  AND  WORDS  OF  CHRIST. 

Cabinet  Edition.      With  Map.    2  vols.     Post  8vo.     10s. 

Cheap  Edition,  without  the  Notes,     i  vol.     Svo.     6s. 
A  SHORT  LIFE  OF  CHRIST.      With  34  Illustrations.      Crown  Svo. 

35.  6d.  ;  gilt  edges,  4r.  dd. 

Gold  Dust:  a  Collection  of  Golden  Counsels  for  the  Sancti- 
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Charlotte  M.  Yonge.  Parts  I.  II.  III.  Small  Pocket  Volumes. 
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Gore.— Works  by  the  Right  Rev.  Charles  Gore,  D.D.,  Lord 
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Goreh.— THE    LIFE    OF    FATHER    GOREH.      By    C.    E. 
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Great  Truths  of  the  Christian  Religion.    Edited  by  the  Rev. 
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Hall.— Works  by  the  Right  Rev.  A.  C.  A.  Hall,  D.D.,  Bishop 
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THE  VIRGIN    MOTHER:    Retreat  Addresses    on    the    Life  of   the 
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CHRIST'S  TEMPTATION  AND  OURS.     Crown  8vo.     35.  6d. 
THE  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE  OF  PRAYER.     Crown  8vo.     3s.  6d. 

Hallowing  of  Sorrow.     By  E.  R.      With  a  Preface  by  H.  S. 

Holland,  M. A.,  Canon  and  Precentor  of  St.  Paul's.     SfnallSvo.   2s. 

Handbooks  for  the  Clergy.    Edited  by  the  Rev.  Arthur  W. 

Robinson,    B.D.,    Vicar    of   Allhallows    Barking    by    the    Tower. 

Crown  8vo.     2s.  6d.  net  each  Volume. 
THE  PERSONAL  LIFE  OF  THE  CLERGY.     By  the  Rev.  Arthur 

\V.  RoBLNSON,  B.D.,  Vicar  of  Allhallows  Barking  by  the  Tower. 
THE  MINISTRY  OF  CONVERSION.   By  the  Rev.  A.  J.  Mason,  D.D., 

Master  of  Pembroke  College,  Cambridge,  and  Canon  of  Canterbury. 
PATRISTIC  STUDY.     By  the  Rev.  H.  B.  Swete,  D.D.,  Regius  Pro- 
fessor of  Divinity  in  the  University  of  Cambridge. 
FOREIGN  MISSIONS.    By  the  Right  Rev.  H.  H.  Montgomery,  D.D., 

Secretary  of  the  Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the  Gospel. 
THE  STUDY  OF  THE  GOSPELS.     By  the  Very  Rev.  J.  Armitagk 

Robinson,  D.D.  ,  Dean  of  Westminster. 
A  CHRISTIAN    APOLOGETIC.       By  the   Very    Rev.   Wilford    L. 

Robbins,  D.D.,  Dean  of  the  Theological  Seminary,  New  York. 
PASTORAL  VISITATION.     By  the  Rev.  H.  E.  Savage,  M.A.,  Vicar 

of  Halifax. 
AUTHORITY  IN  THE  CHURCH.     By  the  Very  Rev.  J.  B.  Strong, 

D.D.,  Dean  of  Christ  Church,  Oxford. 
THE    STUDY    OF    ECCLESIASTICAL    HISTORY,     By  the  Right 

Rev.  W.  E.  Collins,  D.  D.  ,  Bishop  of  Gibraltar. 
CHURCH  MUSIC.    By  A.  Madeley  Richardson,  Mus. Doc,  Organist 

of  St.  Saviour's  Collegiate  Church,  Southwark. 
LAY  WORK  AND    THE    OFFICE    OF    READER.      By  the   Right 

Rev.  HUYSHE  Yeatman-Biggs,  D.D.,  Lord  Bishop  of  Worcester. 
RELIGION  AND  SCIENCE     By  the  Rev.   P.  N.  Waggett,  M.A.  of 

the  Society  of  St.  John  the  Evangelist,  Cowley. 
ELEMENTARY  SCHOOLS.    By  the  Rev.  W.  FoxLEY  NORRIS,  M.A., 

Rector  of  Barnsley. 
CHARITABLE  RELIEF.     By  the  Rev.  Clement  F.  Rogers,  M.A. 
INTEMPERANCE,     By  the    Right  Rev.  H.   H.  Pereira,  Bishop  of 

Crovdon. 
PREACHING.      By  the  Very  Rev.    F.    E.   Carter,   M.A.,  Dean  of 

Grahamstown.  [/« preparation. 

A2 


10  A  SELECTION  OF  WORKS 

Hatch.— THE    ORGANIZATION     OF    THE    EARLY 

CHRISTIAN  CHURCHES.  Being  the  Bampton  Lectures  for  i88o. 
By  Edwin  Hatch,  M.A.,  D.D.,  late  Reader  in  Ecclesiastical  History 
in  the  University  of  Oxford,     ^vo.   $s. 

Holland.— Works  by  the  Rev.  Henry  Scott  Holland,  M.A. 
Canon  and  Precentor  of  St.  Paul's. 
GOD'S  CITY  AND  THE  COMING  OF  THE  KINGDOM.      Crown 

8vo.     y.  6d. 
PLEAS  AND  CLAIMS  FOR  CHRIST.     Crown  8vo.     ^s.  6d. 
CREED  AND  CHARACTER  :  Sermons.     Crozvn  8vo.    3s.  6d. 
ON  BEHALF  OF  BELIEF.     Sermons.     Crown  8vo.     35.  6d. 
CHRIST  OR  ECCLESIASTES.     Sermons.     Crown  8vo.    25.  6rf. 
LOGIC  AND  LIFE,  with  other  Sermons.     Crown  8vo.     y.  td. 

GOOD  FRIDAY.     Being  Addresses  on  the  Seven  Last  Words.     Small 
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Hollings.— Works  by  the  Rev.  G.  S.  HOLLINGS,  Mission  Priest  of 
the  Society  of  St.  John  the  Evangelist,  Cowley,  Oxford. 

THE  HEAVENLY  STAIR ;  or,  A  Ladder  of  the  Love  of  God  for  Sinners. 
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PORTA  REGALIS ;  or.  Considerations  on  Prayer.    Crown  8vo.  limp  cloth, 
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CONSIDERATIONS  ON  THE  WISDOM  OF  GOD.     Crown  8vo.    4s. 

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0:v'E  BORN  OF  THE  SPIRIT ;  or,  the  Unification  of  our  Life  in  God. 
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Holmes.— IN  WATCHINGS  OFTEN:  Addresses  to  Nurses. 
By  the  Rev.  E.  E.  Holmes,  Honorary  Canon  of  Christ  Church, 
Oxford.     With  a  Frontispiece.     Croivn  8vo. 

Hutchings.— Works  by  the  Yen.  W.  H.  Hutchings,  M.A.   Arch- 
deacon  of  Cleveland,  Canon   of  York,    Rector  of  Kirby 
Misperton,  and  Rural  Dean  of  Malton. 
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THE  PERSON  AND  WORK  OF  THE  HOLY  GHOST :  a  Doctrinal 
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SOME  ASPECTS  OF  THE  CROSS.     Crown  8vo.    +1.  €>d. 

THE  MYSTERY  OF  THE  TEMPTATION.     Lent  Lectures  delivered  at 
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IN  THEOLOGICAL  LITERATURE.  ii 

Inheritance  of  the  Saints;  or,  Thoughts  on  the  Communion 

of  Saints  and  the  Life  of  the  World  to  come.  Collected  chiefly 
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Scott  Holland,  M.A.    Cmvn  Svo.    35.  6d.  net. 

Illustrated  Edition.  With  8  Pictures  in  Colour  by  Hamel  Lister. 
Crown  Svo.     6s,  net, 

James.— THE  VARIETIES  OFRELIGIOUSEXPERIENCE: 

A  Study  in  Human  Nature.  Being  the  Gifford  Lectures  on  Natural 
Religion  delivered  at  Edinburgh  in  1901-1902.  By  William  James, 
LL.D.,  etc.,  Professor  of  Philosophy  at  Harvard  University,  ivo, 
I2J.  net, 

Jameson. — Works  by  Mrs.  Jameson. 

SACRED  AND  LEGENDARY  ART,  containing  Legends  of  the  Angels 

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Jones.— ENGLAND  AND  THE  HOLY  SEE:  An  Essay 
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in-Marsh.  With  a  Preface  by  the  Right  Hon.  ViSCOUNT  HALIFAX. 
Crown  Svo.    y.  td.  net. 

Jukes.— Works  by  Andrew  Jukes. 

LETTERS  OF  ANDREW  JUKES.  Edited,  with  a  Short  Biography, 
by  the  Rev.  Herbert  H.  Jeafferson,  M.A.    Crown  Svo.    y.  6d.  net. 

THE  NAMES  OF  GOD  IN  HOLY  SCRIPTURE  :  a  Revelation  of 
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THE  TYPES  OF  GENESIS.     Crown  Svo.     7s.  bd. 

THE  SECOND  DEATH  AND  THE  RESTITUTION  OF  ALL 
THINGS.     Crown  Svo.     35. 6d. 

Kelly. — Works  by  the  Rev.  Herbert  H.  Kelly,  M.A.,  Director 
of  the  Society  of  the  Sacred  Mission,  Kelham,  Newark. 

A  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCHOF  CHRIST.  Vol.  L  A.D.  29-342. 
Crown  Svo.    y.  Sd.net.    Vol.  II.  A.D.  324-430.    CrownSvo.   y,  6d.net. 

ENGLAND  AND  THE  CHURCH  :  Her  Calling  and  its  Fulfilment 
Considered  in  Relation  to  the  Increase  and  Efficiency  of  Her  Ministry. 
Crown  Svo.     4J.  net. 


12  A  SELECTION  OF  WORKS 

Knox —PASTORS     AND     TEACHERS  :     Six    Lectures    on 

Pastoral  Theology.    By  the  Right  Rev.  Edmund  Arbuthnott  Knox, 

D.D.,  Bishop  of  Manchester.     With  an  Introduction  by  the  Right  Rev. 

Charles  Gore,  D.  D.,  Bishop  of  Birmingham.     Crcnvn%vo.     q.r.  net. 

Cheap  Edition,  without  the  Appendices.     Crown  8vo.     is.  net. 

Knox.— THE  GRACE  OF  SACRAMENTS.  Being  Treatises 
on  Baptism  and  the  Eucharist.  By  Alexander  Knox.  (1737-1831.) 
Edited,  with  a  Preface,  by  William  Dalrymple  Maclagan,  D.D.  , 
Archbishop  of  York.     Crown  Zvo.    ^s.  net. 

Knox  Little.— Works  by  W.  J.  Knox  Little,  M.A.,  Canon 
Residentiary  of  Worcester,  and  Vicar  of  Hoar  Cross. 

HOLY  MATRIMONY.  Crown  8vo.  5^.  (Tke  Oxford  Library  of 
Practical  Theology.) 

THE  CHRISTIAN  HOME.     CrowK  Svo.     35.  6d. 

THE  MYSTERY  OF  THE  PASSION  OF  OUR  MOST  HOLY 
REDEEMER.     Crown  Zvo.     zs.  6d, 

THE  LIGHT  OF  LIFE.  Sermons  preached  on  Various  Occasions. 
Crown  8vo.     3s,  6d. 

Lear.— Works  by,  and  Edited  by,  H.  L.  Sidney  Lear. 

FOR  DAYS  AND  YEARS.  A  book  containing  a  Text,  Short  Reading, 
and  Hymn  for  Every  Day  in  the  Church's  Year.  i6fno.  2s.net.  Also  a 
Cheap  Edition,  2flmo,  it.;  or  cloth  gilt,  xs.  6d.;  or  with  red  fiorders, 
2s.  net. 

FIVE  MINUTES.  Daily  Readings  of  Poetry.  iSmo.  3s.  6d.  Also  a 
Cheap  Edition,  ^zmo.  is.;  or  cloth  gilt,  is.  6d. 

WEARINESS.  A  Book  for  the  Languid  and  Lonely.  Large  Type. 
Small  8vo.     55. 

DEVOTIONAL  WORKS.  Edited  by  H.  L.  Sidney  Lear.  New  and 
Uniform  Editions.     Nine  Vols.     i6mo.     25.  net  each. 

The  Hidden  Life  of  the  Soul. 
The  Light  of  the  Conscience. 
Also   Cheap  Edition,   j,2.mo,    6d. 


F^nelon's  Spiritual  Letters  to 

Men. 
F^nelon's  Spiritual  Letters  to 

Women. 

A  Selection  from  the  Spiritual 
Letters  of  St.  Francis  de 
Sales.  Also  Cheap  Edition,  -^zmo, 
6d.  cloth  limp  ;  is.  cloth  boards. 

The  Spirit  of  St.  Francis  de 
Sales. 


cloth  limp  ;  xs.  cloth  boards. 
Self-Renunciation.      From   the 

French. 
St.  Francis  de  Sales'   Of  the 

Love  of  God. 
Selections       from       Pascal's 

'Thoughts.' 


CHRISTIAN    BIOGR.^PHIES.      Edited   by  H.    L.   Sidney  Lear. 
Crown  8vo,    3s.  6d.  each. 


IN  THEOLOGICAL  LITERATURE. 


13 


Lear. —  Works    by,  and  Edited    by,  H.  L.   Sidney  Lear.— 
continued. 


Madame  Louise  de  France, 
Daughter  of  Louis  xv. ,  known 
also  as  the  Mother  T^r^se  de  St. 
Augustin. 

A  Dominican  Artist  :  a  Sketch  of 
the  Life  of  the  Rev.  P^re  Besson, 
of  the  Order  of  St.  Dominic. 

Henri  Perreyve.  By  PfeRE 
Gratry.    With  Portrait. 

St.  Francis  de  Sales,  Bishop  and 
Prince  of  Geneva. 


A  Christian  Painter  of  the 
Nineteenth  Century  :  being 
the  Life  of  Hippolyte  Flandrin. 

The  Revival  of  Priestly  Life 
in  the  Seventeenth  Century 
IN  France. 

Bossuet  and  his  Contempora- 
ries. 

F^nelon,    Archbishop   of    Cam- 

BRAI. 

Henri  Dominique  Lacordaire. 


Lenten  Collects  (The).     A  Series  of  Sermons.     By  the  Author 

of  Praeparatio.'     Fcap.Zvo.     is.6d.net. 

Liddon.— LIFE     AND     LETTERS    OF    HENRY    PARRY 

LIDDON,  D.D.,  Canon  of  St.  Paul's.  By  John  Octavius 
Johnston,  M.A.  ,  Principal  of  Cuddesdon  Theological  College ;  with 
a  Concluding  Chapter  by  the  LoRD  Bishop  OF  Oxford.  VVith  5 
Illustrations  (4  Portraits).     8vo.     155.  net. 

Liddon.— Works  by  Henry  Parry  Liddon,  D.D.,D.C.L.,LL.D. 

SERMONS  ON  SOME  WORDS  OF  ST.  PAUL.     Crown  8vo.     5s. 

SERMONS    PREACHED    ON    SPECIAL    OCCASIONS,  1860-1889. 
Crown  8vo.     ^s. 

CLERICAL  LIFE  AND  WORK  :  Sermons.     Crorvn  8vo.     55. 

ESSAYS  AND  ADDRESSES  :  Lectures  on  Buddhism— Lectures  on  the 
Life  of  St.  Paul — Papers  on  Dante.     Crown  8vo.     55. 

EXPLANATORY   ANALYSIS    OF    PAUL'S    EPISTLE    TO    THE 

ROMANS.     8vo.     14J. 

EXPLANATORY   ANALYSIS   OF  ST.  PAUL'S  FIRST  EPISTLE 
TO  TIMOTHY.     8m     js.  6d. 

SERMONS  ON  OLD  TESTAMENT  SUBJECTS.     Crown  8vo.     e,s. 

SERMONS  ON  SOME  WORDS  OF  CHRIST.     Crown  8vo.     <,s. 

THE  DIVINITY  OF  OUR  LORD  AND  SAVIOUR  JESUS  CHRIST, 
Being  the  Bampton  Lectures  for  1866.     Crown  8vo.     ^s, 

ADVENT  IN  ST.  PAUL'S.     Crown  8vo.     5^. 
CHRISTMASTIDE  IN  ST.  PAUL'S.     Crown  8vo.    s-». 
PASSIONTIDE  SERMONS.     Crotvn  8vo.     55. 

[continued. 


14  A  SELECTION  OF  WORKS 

Liddon.— Works    by    Henry  Parry  Liddon,   D.D.,   D.C.L., 

LL.  D. — continued. 
EASTER  IN  ST.  PAUL'S.    Sermons  bearing  chiefly  on  the  Resurrec- 
tion of  our  Lord.      Two    Vols.      Crown  Zvo.     3^.  td.  each.     Cheap 
Edition  in  one  Volume.     Crown  Zvo.     5J. 
SERMONS     PREACHED     BEFORE    THE     UNIVERSITY     OF 
OXFORD.     Two  Vols.     Crown  Zvo.     .v-  6rf,  each.     Cheap  Edition  in 
one  Volume.     Crown  Bvo.     ^s. 
THE  MAGNIFICAT.     Sermons  in  St.  Paul's.     Crown  8vo.    2s.  net. 
SOME    ELEMENTS    OF   RELIGION.      Lent   Lectures.     Small  %vo. 
2S.  net.     [The  Crown  8vo  Edition  (51.)  may  still  be  had.] 
Popular  Edition.     Crown  Svo.    Sewed.    6d.  net. 
Lowrie. — Works    by  the   Rev.   Walter    Lowrie,   Emmanuel 

Church,  Boston,  U.S. 
THE  CHURCH  AND  ITS  ORGANISATION  IN  PRIMITIVE  AND 
CATHOLIC  TIMES  :    an  Interpretation  of  Rudolph  Sohm's  '  Kir- 
chenrecht ' — The  Primitive  Age.     Svo.     14s.  net. 
GAL)  DIUM  CRUCIS :  Meditations  on  the  Passion  and  the  Seven  Last 
Words  of  our  Lord, 
Luckock.— Works    by   HERBERT    MORTIMER   LUCKOCK,    D.D., 
Dean  of  Lichfield. 

THE  SPECIAL  CHARACTERISTICS  OF  THE  FOUR  GOSPELS. 

Crown  Zvo.     6s. 
AFTER    DEATH.      An  Examination   of   the  Testimony  of  Primitive 

Times  respecting  the  State  of  the  Faithful  Dead,  and  their  Relationship 

to  the  Living.     Crown  Zvo.     3.r.  net. 
THE     INTERMEDIATE     STATE      BETWEEN      DEATH     AND 

JUDGMENT.     Being  a  Sequel  to  4//^/- Z)(;a^A.     Crown  ivo.     y.  net. 
FOOTPRINTS  OF  THE  SON  OF  MAN,  as  traced  by  St.  Mark.    Being 

Eighty  Portions  for  Private  Study,  Family  Reading,  and  Instruction 

in  Church.     Crown  Svo.     y.  net. 
FOOTPRINTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES,  as  traced  by  St.   Luke  in  the 

Acts.     Being   Sixty   Portions   for   Private  Study,   and  Instruction  in 

Church.     A  Sequel  to  'Footprints  of  the  Son  of  Man,  as  traced  by 

St.  Mark.'     Two  Vols.     Crown  Svo.     12s. 
THE  DIVINE  LITURGY.      Being  the  Order  for  Holy  Communion, 

Historically,  Doctrinally,  and  Devotionally  set  forth,  in  Fifty  Portions. 

Crown  Svo.     31.  net. 
STUDIES    IN   THE    HISTORY   OF  THE    BOOK   OF  COMMON 

PRAYER.      The  Anglican   Reform— The  Puritan  Innovations— The 

Elizabethan  Reaction — The  Caroline  Settlement.     With  Appendices. 

Crown  Svo.     y.   net. 

Lyra  Germanica:  Hymns  for  the  Sundays  and  Chief  Festivals 

of  the  Christian  Year.     Complete  Edition.     Small  Svo.     t^. 
First  Series.     i6mo,  with  red  borders,  2s.  net. 


IN  THEOLOGICAL  LITERATURE.  15 

MacCoU.— Works  by  the  Rev.  Malcolm  MacColl,  D.D.,  Canon 
Residentiary  of  Ripon. 

THE  REFORMATION  SETTLEMENT :  Examined  in  the  Light  of 
History  and  Law.  Tenth  Edition,  Revised,  with  a  new  Preface. 
Crown  Svo.     2s.  6d.  net. 

CHRISTIANITY  IN  RELATION  TO  SCIENCE  AND  MORALS. 
Crown  %vo.     65. 

LIFE  HERE  AND  HEREAFTER  :  Sermons.     Crown  Zvo.    7s.  td. 

Marriage  Addresses  and  Marriage  Hymns.  By  the  Bishop  of 
London,  the  Bishop  of  Rochester,  the  Bishop  of  Truro,  the  Dean 
OF  Rochester,  the  Dean  of  Norwich,  Archdeacon  Sinclair, 
Canon  Duckworth,  Canon  Newbolt,  Canon  Knox  Little, 
Canon  Rawnsley,  the  Rev.  J.  Llewellyn  Davies,  D.D.,  the  Rev. 
W.  Allen  Whitworth,  etc.  Edited  by  the  Rev.  O.  P.  Wardell- 
Yerburgh,  M.  a.,  Vicar  of  the  Abbey  Church  of  St.  Mary,  Tewkesbury. 
Crown  Svo.     5^. 

Mason. — Works  by  A.  J.  Mason,  D.D.,  Master  of  Pembroke 
College,  Cambridge,  and  Canon  of  Canterbury. 
THE    MINISTRY    OF    CONVERSION.       Crown   Svo.      2s.  6d.   net. 

{^Handbooks  for  the  Clergy. ) 
PURGATORY;     THE    STATE    OF    THE    FAITHFUL    DEAD; 

INVOCATION  OF  SAINTS.  Three  Lectures,   CrownZvo.  ■^s. ed.net. 
THE  FAITH  OF  THE  GOSPEL.     A  Manual  of  Christian  Doctrine. 

Crown  Svo.     7s.  6d.     Cheap  Edition.     Crown  Svo.    35.  net. 
THE  RELATION  OF  CONFIRMATION  TO  BAPTISM.    As  taught 

in  Holy  Scripture  and  the  Fathers.     Crown  Svo.     7s.  6d. 
TRUE  TALES  OF  EARLY  CHRISTIAN  FORTITUDE. 

Maturin. — Works  by  the  Rev.  B.  W.  Maturin. 

SOME    PRINCIPLES   AND    PRACTICES   OF  THE   SPIRITUAL 

LIFE.     Crown  8vt>.     ^.  6d. 
PRACTICAL  STUDIES  ON   THE   PARABLES  OF  OUR  LORD. 

Crown  Svo.     55. 

Medd.— THE   PRIEST  TO   THE  ALTAR ;  or.  Aids  to  the 

Devout  Celebration  of  Holy  Communion,  chiefly  after  the  Ancient 
English  Use  of  Sarum.  By  Peter  Goldsmith  Medd,  M.A.,  Canon 
of  St.  Albans.    Fourth  Edition,  revised  and  enlarged.    Royal  Svo.   ic,s. 

Meyrick.— THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF 

England  on  the  Holy  Communion  Restated  as  a  Guide  at  the  Present 
Time.     By  the  Rev.  F.  Meyrick,  M.A.     Crown  Svo.     4J.  6d. 

Monro.— SACRED  ALLEGORIES.  By  Rev.  Edward  Monro. 

Lompletc  Edition  in  one  Volume,  with  JUustrations,  Crown  Svo. 
y,  td.  net. 


i6  A  SELECTION  OF  WORKS 

Mortimer.— Works  by  the  Rev.  A.  G.  Mortimer,  D.D.,  Rector 
of  St.  Mark'Sj  Philadelphia. 
THE     CREEDS:     An    Historical    and    Doctrinal    Exposition   of    the 

Apostles',  Nicene  and  Athanasian  Creeds.     Crown  Zvo,     55.  net. 
THE  EUCHARISTIC  SACRIFICE:   An  Historical  and  Theological 

Investigation  of  the  Sacrificial  Conception  of  the  Holy  Eucharist  in  the 

Christian  Church.     Crown  8vo.     los.  6d. 
CATHOLIC  FAITH  AND  PRACTICE:  A  Manual  of  Theology.     Two 

Parts.      Crown  Svo.     Part  I.  ys.  6d.     Part  II.  gs. 
JESUS   AND  THE   RESURRECTION:   Thirty  Addresses  for  Good 

Friday  and  Easter.     Crown  8vo.     55. 
HELPS  TO  MEDITATION  :  Sketches  for  Every  Day  in  the  Year. 

Vol.   I.  Advent  to  Trinity.    8vo.    7s.  6d. 

Vol.  II.  Trinity  to  Advent.     8vo.    7s.  6d. 
STORIES  FROM  GENESIS  :  Sermons  for  Children.     CrownSvo.     4s. 
THE  LAWS  OF  HAPPINESS;    or,   The  Beatitudes  as  teaching  our 

Duty  to  God,  Self,  and  our  Neighbour.     iStno.     25. 
THE  LAWS  OF  PENITENCE:  Addresses  on  the  Words  of  our  Lord 

from  the  Cross.     i6mo.     is.  6d. 
SERMONS   IN    MINIATURE  FOR  EXTEMPORE   PREACHERS : 

Sketches  for   Every  Sunday  and   Holy  Day  of  the   Christian   Year. 

Crown  8vo.     6s. 
NOTES  ON  THE  SEVEN   PENITENTIAL   PSALMS,  chiefly  from 

Patristic  Sources.     Small  8vo.     35.  6d. 
MEDITATIONS  ON  THE  PASSION  OF  OUR  MOST  HOLY  RE- 
DEEMER.    Parti.     Crown  8vo.     5^. 
THE  SEVEN  LAST  WORDS  OF  OUR  MOST  HOLY  REDEEMER: 

Being  Meditations  on  some  Scenes  in  His  Passion  (Meditations  on 

the  Passion.      Part  11.)     Crown  8vo.     5^. 
LEARN  OF  JESUS  CHRIST  TO  DIE  :  Addresses  on  the  Words  of  our 

Lord  from  the  Cross,  taken  as  teaching  the  way  of  Preparation  for 

Death.     i6mo.     2S. 

Mozley.— RULING  IDEAS  IN  EARLY  AGES  AND  THEIR 
RELATION  TO  OLD  TESTAMENT  FAITH.  By  J.  B.  Mozley. 
D.D.,  late  Canon  of  Christ  Church,  and  Regius  Professor  of  Divinity 
at  Oxford.     8vo.     6s. 

My  Communion :  Twenty-six  Addresses  in  Preparation  for 
Holy  Communion.  By  the  Author  of  '  Praeparatio,'  with  Preface  by 
the  Rev.  G.  CONGREVE,  S.S.J.E. 

Newbolt.— Works  by  the  Rev.  W.  C.  E.  Newbolt,  M.A.,  Canon 
and  Chancellor  of  St.  Paul's  Cathedral. 
PRAYERS.  PSALMS,  AND  LECTIONS  FOR  THE  HOUSEHOLD. 

Fcap.  8vo.     2s.  6d.  net. 
APOSTLES  OF  THE  LORD :  being  Six  Lectures  on  Pastoral  Theo- 
logy.    Crown  8vo.     y.  6d.  net. 


IN  THEOLOGICAL  LITERATURE.  17 

Newbolt.— Works  by  the  Rev,  W.  C.  E,  Newbolt,  M.A.,  Canon 

and  Chancellor  of  St.  Paul's  Cathedral. — continued. 
THE    CHURCH    CATECHISM    THE    CHRISTIAN'S   MANUAL. 

Crown  8vo.    ^s.     ( The  Oxford  Library  of  Practical  Theology. ) 
RELIGION.      Crown   Zvo.      55.      {The   Oxford  Library  of  Practical 

Theology, ) 
WORDS  OF  EXHORTATION.     Sermons  Preached  at  St.  Paul's  and 

elsewhere.     Crown  Zvo.     55.  net. 
PENITENCE  AND  PEACE:   being  Addresses  ©n  the  sist  and  23rd 

Psalms.     Crown  8vo.     as.  net. 
PRIESTLY  IDEALS ;  being  a  Course  of  Practical  Lectures  delivered  in 

St.  Paul's  Cathedral.     Crown  8vo.     35.  6d. 
PRIESTLY  BLEMISHES ;  being  a  Second  Course  of  Practical  Lectures 

delivered  in  St.  Paul's  Cathedral.     Crown  8vo.     y.  6d. 
THE  GOSPEL  OF  EXPERIENCE  ;  or,  the  Witness  of  Human  Life 

to  the  truth  of  Revelation.     Crown  8vo.     sj. 
COUNSELS  OF  FAITH  AND  PRACTICE:  being  Sermons  preached 

on  various  occasions.         Crown  8vo.     5J. 
SPECULUM  SACERDOTUM  ;    or,  the  Divine  Model  of  the  Priestly 

Life.     Crown  8vo.     "js.  6d. 
THE  FRUIT  OF  THE  SPIRIT.     Being  Ten  Addresses  bearing  on 

the  Spiritual  Life.    Crown  8vo.     zs.  net. 
THE  PRAYER  BOOK  :  Its  Voice  and  Teaching.     Crown  8vo.    zs.  net. 

Newman.— Works  by  John  Henry  Newman,  B.D.,  sometime 
Vicar  of  St.  Mary's,  Oxford. 

LETTERS  AND  CORRESPONDENCE  OF  JOHN  HENRY  NEW- 
MAN DURING  HIS  LIFE  IN  THE  ENGLISH  CHURCH.  With 
a  brief  Autobiography.  Edited,  at  Cardinal  Newman's  request,  by 
Anne  Mozley.     2  vols.     Crown  8vo.    7s. 

PAROCHIAL  AND  PLAIN  SERMONS.  Eight  Vols.  Crown  8vo. 
y.  6d.  each. 

SELECTION,  ADAPTED  TO  THE  SEASONS  OF  THE  ECCLE- 
SIASTICAL YEAR,  from  the  '  Parochial  and  Plain  Sermons.'  Crown 
8vo.     y.  6d. 

FIFTEEN  SERMONS  PREACHED  BEFORE  THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  OXFORD.    Crown  8vo.      y.  6d. 

SERMONS  BEARING  UPON  SUBJECTS  OF  THE  DAY.  Crown 
8vo,     y,  6d. 

LECTURES  ON  THE  DOCTRINE  OF  JUSTIFICATION.  Crown 
8vo.    y.  6d. 

*,*  A  Complete  List  of  Cardinal  Newman't  Worl<a  can  be  had  on  Application. 

Old,  Old  Story,  The,  and  other  Verses.      Being  a  complete 

Collection  of  the  Author's  Poems,     Square  fcap,  8vo.     zs.  6d. 

Old,  Old  Story,  The.      Large-type  Edition.     Fcap.  Zvo.     id. 

Limp  cloth,  6d.  Small-type  Edition,  ^d.  Musical  Edition,  with 
Author's  Music  for  both  Parts,  4to.  6d.  Musical  Leaiflet.  Fart  L 
100  for  IS.  6d.     Brondside  Sheet  for  Cottage  Walls,     zd. 


1 8  A  SELECTION  OF  WORKS 

Osborne.— Works  by  Edward  Osborne,  Mission  Priest  of  the 
Society  of  St.  John  the  Evangelist,  Cowley,  Oxford. 

THE  CHILDREN'S  SAVIOUR.  Instructions  to  Children  on  the  Life 
of  Our  Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ.     Illustrated.     i6mo.     ss.  net. 

THE  SAVIOUR  KING.  Instructions  to  Children  on  Old  Testament 
Types  and  Illustrations  of  the  Life  of  Christ.  Illustrated.  \tmo.  zs.  net. 

THE  CHILDREN'S  FAITH.  Instructions  to  Children  on  the  Apostles' 
Creed.     Illustrated,     i6mo.     zs,  net. 

Ottley— ASPECTS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT:  being  the 
Bampton  Lectures  for  1897.  By  Robert  Lawrence  Ottley,  M.A., 
Canon  of  Christ  Church.     Zvo.     7s.  6d. 

Oxford  (The)  Library  of  Practical  Theology.— Edited  by  the 

Rev.  W.  C.  E.  Newbolt,  M.A.,  Canon  and  Chancellor  of  St.  Paul's, 

and  the  Rev.  Darwell  Stone,  M.A.,  Librarian  of  the  Pusey  House, 

Oxford.     Crown  8vo.     5^.  eacA. 
RELIGION.     By  the  Rev.  W,  C.  E.   Newbolt,   M.A.,  Canon   and 

Chancellor  of  St.  Paul's. 
HOLY  BAPTISM.     By  the  Rev.  Darwell  Stonb,  M.A.,  Librarian  of 

the  Pusey  House,  Oxford. 
CONFIRMATION.     By  the  Right  Rev.  A.  C.  A.  Hall,  D.D.,  Bishop 

of  Vermont. 
THE  HISTORY  OF    THE    BOOK  OF  COMMON   PRAYER.     By 

the   Rev.   Leighton  Pullan,  M.A.,  Fellow  of  St.  John  Baptist's 

College,  Oxford. 
PRAYER.     By  the  Rev.  ARTHUR  JOHN  WoRLLEDGE,  M.A.,  Canon  and 

Chancellor  of  Truro. 
HOLY   MATRIMONY.      By  the  Rev,   VV,  J.   Knox  Little,   M.A. 

Canon  of  Worcester. 
THE  INCARNATION.     By  the  Rev.  H.  V,  S.  EcK,  M.A.,  Rector  of 

St.  Matthew's,  Bethnal  Green. 
FOREIGN    MISSIONS.      By  the  Right  Rev,  E.  T.  Chukton,  D.D,, 

formerly  Bishop  of  Nassau. 
SUNDAY.      By  the   Rev,   W.   B,   Trevelyan,    M.A.,   Vicar    of  St. 

Matthew's,  Westminster. 

THE  CHRISTIAN  TRADITION.     By  the  Rev,  Leighton  Pullan. 

M.A.,  Fellow  of  St.  John's  College,  Oxford. 
BOOKS  OF  DEVOTION.     By  the  Rev.  Charles  Bodington,  Canon 

and  Precentor  of  Lichfield. 

CHURCH    WORK.      By    the    Rev.     BERNARD    Reynolds,    M.A., 

Prebendary  of  St.  Paul's. 
HOLY  ORDERS.     By  the  Rev,  A.  R.  Whitham,  M.A,,  Principal  of 


Culham  College,  Abingdon, 


\_coniinued. 


/.V  THEOLOGICAL  LITERATURE. 


19 


Oxford  (The)  Library  of  Practical  Theology.— con ti7iued. 

THE    CHURCH    CATECHISM    THE    CHRISTIAN'S    MANUAL. 
By  the  Rev.  W.  C.  E.  Newbolt,  M.A.,  Joint  Editor  of  the  Series. 

THE  HOLY  COMMUNION.     By  the  Rev.  Daevvell  Stone,  M.A., 
Joint  Editor  of  the  Series. 

CHURCH    AND    STATE    IN    ENGLAND.      By  the   Rev.    H.   W. 

Abraham,  D.D.,  Vicar  of  St.  Augustine's,  Hull.  [/«  the  press. 

RELIGIOUS    CEREMONIAL.      By   the    Rev,    Walter    Howard 

Frere,   M.A.  ,   Superior  of    the    Community    of    the    Resurrection, 

Examining  Chaplain  to  the  Bishop  of  Rochester.  [/?« preparation. 

VISITATION  OF  THE  SICK.     By  the  Rev.  E.  F.  Russell,  M.A., 

St.  Alban's,  Holborn.  \In  preparation. 

OLD  TESTAMENT  CRITICISM.     By  the  Very  Rev.  Henry  Wage, 

D.D.,  Dean  of  Canterbury.  \In  preparation. 

NEW  TESTAMENT  CRITICISM.      By  the  Rev.  R.  J.  Knowling, 

D.  D. ,  Professor  of  New  Testament  Exegesis  at  King's  College,  London. 

\In  preparation. 

Paget.— Works  by  Francis  Paget,   D.D.,  Bishop  of  Oxford. 

CHRIST  THE  WAY :  Four  Addresses  given  at  a  Meeting  of  School- 
masters and  others  at  Haileybury.     Crown  Svo.     is.  6d.  net. 

STUDIES  IN  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHARACTER:  Sermons.    With  an 

Introductory  Essay.     Crown  Svo.     4J.  net. 
THE  SPIRIT  OF  DISCIPLINE :  Sermons.     Crown  Svo.     45.  net. 

FACULTIES    AND    DIFFICULTIES    FOR    BELIEF    AND    DIS- 
BELIEF.    Crown  Svo.     4s.  net. 

THE  HALLOWING  OF  WORK.     Addresses  given  at  Eton,  January 
16-18,  1888.    Small  Zvo.     2s. 

Percival.— THE  INVOCATION  OF  SAINTS.  Treated  Theo- 
logically and  Historically.     By  Henry  R,  Percival,  M.A.,  D.D. 

Crown  Svo.    5J. 

Petre.— THE    SOUL'S   ORBIT;   or,   Man's  Journey  to   God. 

Compiled  with  Additions,  by  M.  D.  Petre.     Crown  Svo.    c^.  6d.  net. 

Powell.— CHORALIA  :  a  Handy-Book  for  Parochial  Precentors 
and  Choirmasters.  By  the  Rev.  James  Baden  Powell,  M.A., 
Precentor  of  St.  Paul's,  Knightsbridge.    Crown  8vo.     ^s.  6d.  net. 

Practical  Reflections.  By  a  Clergyman.  With  Preface  by 
H,  P.  LiDDON,  D.D.,  D.C.L.,  and  the  Lord  Bishop  of  Lincoln. 
Crown  Svo. 


The  Book  of  Genesis. 
The  Psalms.    s.j, 
Isaiah.    45.  6d. 


4^.  6d. 


The  Minor  Prophets.    4j.  6d. 
The  Holy  Gospels,    ^t.  6d. 
Acts  to  Re-\t:lation.    6s. 


30  A  SELECTION  OF  WORKS 

Praeparatio:  or,  Notes  of  Preparation  for  Holy  Communion, 

founded  on  the  Collect,  Epistle,  and  Gospel.  With  Preface  by  the 
Rev.  George  Congreve,  of  the  Society  of  St.  John  the  Evangelist, 
Cowley. 

Sundays.     Crown  Zvg.    6s.  net. 

Holy  Days  and  Saints'  Days.     Crown  8vo.    6s.  net. 

Priest's  Prayer  Book  (The).      Containing  Private  Prayers  and 

Intercessions  ;  Occasional,  School,  and  Parochial  Offices  ;  Offices  for 
the  Visitation  of  the  Sick,  with  Notes,  Readings,  Collects,  Hymns, 
Litanies,  etc.  With  a  brief  Pontifical.  By  the  late  Rev.  R.  F. 
LiTTLEDALE,  LL.D.,  D.C.L.,  and  Rev,  J.  Edward  Vaux,  M.A., 
F.S.A.     Post  8vo.     6s.  6d. 

Pullan.— THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  BOOK  OF  COMMON 
PRAYER.  By  the  Rev.  Leighton  Pullan,  M.A.,  Fellow  of 
St.  John  Baptist's  College,  Oxford.  Crown  8vo.  £5.  {The  Oxford 
Library  of  Practical  Theology.) 

Puller.— THE  PRIMITIVE  SAINTS  AND  THE  SEE  OF 
ROME.  By  F.  W.  Puller,  of  the  Society  of  St.  John  the  Evan- 
gelist, Cowley,     8vo.     \6s.  net. 

Pusey. — Works  by  the  Rev.  E,  B.  PusEY,  D.D. 

PRIVATE  PRAYERS.  With  Preface  by  H.  P.  Liddon,  D.D., 
late  Chancellor  and  Canon  of  St.  Paul's.     Royal  ^zmo.     is. 

SPIRITUAL  LETTERS  OF  EDWARD  BOUVERIE  PUSEY, 
D.D.  Edited  by  the  Rev.  J.  O.  Johnston,  M.A.,  Principal  of  the 
Theological  College,  Cuddesdon  ;  and  the  Rev.  W.  C.  E.  Newbolt, 
M.  A.,  Canon  and  Chancellor  of  St.  Paul's.     Crown  Svo.    ^s.  net. 

Pusey.— THE  STORY  OF  THE    LIFE   OF   DR,  PUSEY. 

By  the  Author  of  'Charles  Lowder.'  With  Frontispiece.  Crown  Svo. 
7 J.  6d.  net. 

Randolph. — Works  by  B.  W.  Randolph,  D,D.,  Principal  of  the 
Theological  College  and  Hon.  Canon  of  Ely. 

THE  EXAMPLE  OF  THE  PASSION:  being  Addresses  given  in  St. 
Paul's  Cathedral.     Small  Svo.     2S.  ftet. 

THE  LAW  OF  SINAI :  Being  Devotional  Addresses  on  the  Ten  Com- 
mandments delivered  to  Ordinands.    Crown  Svo.     y.  6d. 

MEDITATIONS  ON  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT  for  Every  Day  in 
the  Year.     Crown  Svo.     c^s.  net. 

MEDITATIONS  ON  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT  for  Every  Day  in 
the  Year.     Crown  Svo.     ^s.  net, 

THE  THRESHOLD  OF  THE  SANCTUARY :  being  Short  Chapters 
on  the  Inner  Preparation  for  the  Priesthood.     Crown  Svo,    y.  6d, 

THE  VIRGIN  BIRTH  OFOUR  LORD :  aPaperread  (in  Substance)  before 
the  Brotherhood  of  the  Holy  Trinity  of  Cambridge.    Crown  Zvo.  2s.net, 

EMBER  THOUGHTS;  Addresses.     Crown  Svo.    as.net. 


IN  THEOLOGICAL  LITERATURE 


21 


RIVINGTON'S  DEVOTIONAL  SERIES. 

xbmo,  Red  Borders  and  gilt  edges.    Each  2s.  net. 

Bickersteth's  Yesterday,  To- 
day, and  For  Ever.  Gilt  edges. 

Chilcot's  Treatise  on  Evil 
Thoughts.    Red  ed^es. 

The  Christian  Year.  Gilt  edges. 

Herbert's  Poems  and  Proverbs. 
Gilt  edges. 

Thomas  X  Kempis'  Of  the  Imita- 
tion OF  Christ.     Gilt  edges. 

Lear's  (H.  L.  Sidney)  For  Days 
AND  Years.     Gilt  edges. 

Lyra  Apostolica.  Poems  by 
J.  W.  BOWDEN,  R.  H.  Froude, 
J.  Keble,  J.  H.  Newman, 
R.  L  Wilberforce,  and  I. 
Williams  ;  and  a  Preface  by 
Cardinal  Newman.  Gilt  edges. 

Francis  de  Sales'  (St.)  The 
Devout  Life.     Gilt  edges. 


Wilson's  The  Lord's  Supper. 
Red  edges. 

♦Taylor's  (Jeremy)  Holy  Living. 
Red  edges. 

• Holy  Dying. 

Red  edges. 

Scudamore's  Steps  to  the 
Altar..     Gilt  edges 

Lyra  Germanica  :  Hymns  for 
the  Sundays  and  Chief 
Festivals  of  the  Christian 
Year.     First  Series.    Gilt  edges. 

Law's  Treatise  on  Christian 
Perfection.  Edited  by  L.  H. 
M.  SOULSBY.     Gilt  edges. 


Christ  and  His  Cross  :  Selec- 
tions from  Samuel  Ruther- 
ford's   Letters.      Edited    by 
L.  H.  M.  Soulsby.     Gilt  edges, 
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iZmo,  ivithout  Red  Borders. 


Bickersteth's  Yesterday,  To- 
day, and  For  Ever, 

The  Christian  Year. 

Thomas  A.  Kempis'  Of  the  Imita- 
tion OF  Christ. 

Herbert's  Poems  and  Proverbs. 


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TO       THE 


Scudamore's 
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Wilson's   The  Lord's  Supper. 

Francis   de   Sales'  (St.)   The 
Devout  Life. 
*Taylor's  (Jeremy)  Holy  Living. 
* Holy  Dying. 


*  These  two  in  one  Volume.     2J.  6rf. 

Robbing.— Works  by  Wilford  L.  Robbins,  D.D.,  Dean  of  the 
General  Theological  Seminary,  New  York. 
AN  ESSAY  TOWARD  FAITH.     Small  Zvo.     35.  net. 
A  CHRISTIAN  APOLOGETIC.    CfownZvo.    2s.6d.net. 

Robinson.— THE  PERSONAL  LIFE  OF  THE  CLERGY. 
By  the  Rev.  A.  W.  Robinson,  B.D.,  Vicar  of  Allhallows  Barking  by 
the  Tower.     Crown  %vo.    zs.  6d.  net. 


22  A  SELECTION  OF  WORKS 

Robinson. — Works  by  the  Very  Rev.  J.  Armitage  Robinson, 
D.D.,  Dean  of  Westminster. 
SOME  THOUGHTS  ON   INSPIRATION.      Crown  Bvo.    Sewed,  6d. 

net;  Cloth,  is.  net. 
SOME  THOUGHTS  ON  THE  ATHANASIAN  CREED.     Crown  8vo. 

Sewed,  6d.  net;  Cloth,  is.  net. 
SOME    THOUGHTS     ON     THE    INCARNATION.       Crown  8vo. 

Sewed,  6d.  net ;  Cloth,  is.  net. 
THE  STUDY  OF  THE  GOSPELS.     Crown  8vo.     zs.  6d.  net. 

Robinson.— Works  by  the  Rev.  C.  H.  RoBiNSON,  M.A.,  Editorial 

Secretary  to  the  S.P.G.  and  Canon  of  Ripon. 

STUDIES  IN  THE  CHARACTER  OF  CHRIST.    Crown  8m    3s.  6d. 

HUMAN     NATURE    A     REVELATION     OF    THE     DIVINE: 

A  Sequel  to  '  Studies  in  the  Character  o!'  Christ.'    Crown  8vo.   6s.  net. 

Robinson.— COLLEGE  AND  ORDINATION  ADDRESSES. 
By  the  Rev.  Forbes  Robinson,  M.A.  Edited  with  an  Intro- 
duction by  the  Rev.  C.  H.  Robinson,  M.A.     Cr.  8vo.     3^.  6d.  net. 

Romanes.— THOUGHTS  ON  THE  COLLECTS  FOR  THE 
TRINITY  SEASON.  By  Ethel  Romanes,  Author  of  'The  Life 
and  Letters  of  George  John  Romanes.'  With  a  Preface  by  the  Right 
Rev.  the  Lord  Bishop  of  London.    i8mo.   is.  6d.  ;  gilt  edges.   y.6d. 

Romanes.— THOUGHTS  ON  RELIGION  By  George  J. 
Romanes.  Edited  and  with  a  Preface  by  the  Right  Rev.  Charles 
Gore,  D.D.  ,  Lord  Bishop  of  Birmingham.  Crown  8vo.  45.  6d. 
Popular  Edition.     Crown  8vo,  sewed,  6d.  net. 

Sanday. — Works  by  W.  Sanday,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  Lady  Margaret 
Professor  of  Divinity  and  Canon  of  Christ  Church,  Oxford. 

THE  ORACLES  OF  GOD  :  Nine  Lectures  on  the  Nature  and  Extent 
of  Biblical  Inspiration  and  the  Special  Significance  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment Scriptures  at  the   Present  Time.     Crown  8vo.     4J. 

DIFFERENT  CONCEPTIONS  OF  PRIESTHOOD  AND  SACRI- 
FICE :  a  Report  of  a  Conference  held  at  Oxford,  December  13  and 
14,  1899.     Edited  by  W.  Sanday,  D.D.     8vo.    7s.  6d, 

INSPIRATION  :  Eight  Lectures  on  the  Early  History  and  Origin  of 
the  Doctrine  of  Biblical  Inspiration.  Being  the  Bampton  Lectures 
for  1893.     8vo.     7s.  6d. 

Scudamore.— STEPS  TO  THE  ALTAR:  a  Manual  of  Devotion 
for  the  Blessed  Eucharist.     By  the  Rev.  W.  E.  Scudamore,  M.A. 
Royal  ^imo.     is. 
On  toned  paper,  and  rubricated,  is. :  The  same,  with  Collects,  Epistles,  and 

Gospels,  2S.  6d.  ;  i8mo,  is.  net;  Demy  i8mo,  cloth,  large  type,  is.  ^d.;  i6mo, 

with  red  borders,  zs.  net ;  Imperial  ■^zmo,  limp  cloth,  6d. 

Skrine.— PASTOR  AGNORUM :  a  Schoolmaster's  After- 
thoughts. By  John  Huntley  Skrine,  sometime  Warden  of  Glen- 
alraond.     Crown  8vo.     5J.  net. 


IN  THEOLOGICAL  LITERATURE.  23 

Simple  Guides  to  Christian  Knowledge.— Edited  by  Florence 
Robinson,  formerly  of  St.  Hilda's  Hall,  Oxford. 

THE  STORY  OF  OUR  LORD'S  LIFE.  By  Mrs.  H.  H.  Mont- 
gomery.    With  8  Coloured  Illustrations.     z6mo.     zs.  6d.  net. 

THE  EARLY  STORY  OF  ISRAEL.  By  Mrs.  J.  S.  Thomas.  With 
7  Full-page  Plates,  13  Illustrations  in  the  Text,  and  4  Maps  (2 
Coloured).     x6mo.    2S.  6d.  net. 

THE  TEACHING  OF  THE  CATECHISM.  By  BEATRICE  WARD. 
With  8  Illustrations.     i6mo.     2S.  6d.  net. 

HOW  TO  USE  THE  PRAYER  BOOK.  By  Mrs,  G.  J.  Romanes, 
x6mo.     2f.  net. 

THE  WORK  OF  THE  PROPHETS.  By  Rose  E.  Selfe,  With  8 
Illustrations  and  2  Maps.     z6fno.     zs.  6d.  net, 

Soulsby.— Works  by  L.  H.  M.  Soulsby. 

SUGGESTIONS  ON  PRAYER.    i8mo,  sewed,  is.  net.  ;  cloth,  xs.  6d.  net. 
SUGGESTIONS  ON  BIBLE  READING.    i8mo,  sezved,  is.  net;  cloth, 
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Stock.— A    SHORT     HANDBOOK    OF     MISSIONS.      By 

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ary Society.     Crown  8vo.     Sewed,  is.  net;  cloth,  is.  bd.  net. 

Stone. — Works  by  the  Rev.  Darwell  Stone,  M.A.,  Librarian 
of  the  Pusey  House,  Oxford. 
THE   INVOCATION  OF  SAINTS.     8m     2s.  6d.  net. 
OUTLINES  OF  CHRISTIAN  DOGMA.     Crown  8vo.     7s.  6d. 
HOLY  BAPTISM.     Crown  8vo.     SJ. 
THE  HOLY  COMMUNION.     Crown  8vo.  5^. 

Strong.— Works  by  THOMAS  B.  Strong,  D.D.,  Dean  of  Christ 
Church,  Oxford. 
CHRISTIAN  ETHICS :  being  the  Bampton  Lectures  for  1895.  8vo.  7s.  6d. 
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AUTHORITY  IN  THE  CHURCH.     Crown  8vo.    2S.  6d.  net. 

Stubbs.— Works  by  the  Right  Rev.  W.  Stubbs,  D.D.,  late  Lord 
Bishop  of  Oxford. 
ORDINATION  ADDRESSES.     Crown  8vo.     y.  ed.  net. 
VISITATION  CHARGES.     8vo.     7s.  bd.  net. 

Swainson.— BIBLE    WORK    AND    WARFARE  :     Being   a 

Practical  Manual  of  Bible  Class  Work.     By  the  Rev.  FRANK  SWAIN- 
SON.     Crown  8vo.     2s.  net. 

Taylor,— JEREMY  TAYLOR  :  a  Sketch  of  his  Life  and  Times, 
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Taylor.— MINISTERS    OF    THE    WORD    AND    SACRA- 

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Taylor,  M.A.,  Archdeacon  of  Southwark.     Crown  8vo.     4?.  bd.  net. 


24       A  SELECTION  OF  THEOLOGICAL  WORKS. 
Waggett. — Works  by  the  Rev.  P.  N.  Waggett,  M.A. 

THE  AGE  OF  DECISION.     Crown  8vo.     2s.  bd.  net. 
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Chalcedon,  a.d.  451.     Crown  Svo.     6s. 

Wordsworth. — Works  by  Christopher  Wordsworth,  D.D., 
sometime  Bishop  of  Lincoln. 
THE  HOLY  BIBLE  (the  Old  Testament).     With  Notes,  Introductions, 
and  Index.     Imperial  Svo. 

Vol.  I.  The  Pfntateuch.  25J.  Vol.  II.  Joshua  to  Samuel.  15^. 
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Daniel,  Minor  Prophets,  and  Index,    i^s. 

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Vol.  I.  Gospels  and  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  2y,  Vol.  II. 
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